How to Write Japanese Names
 

I was wondering why is it that sometimes they leave a space between surname and given name when writing in Japanese characters and other times they don't leave any space at all. This is the case with Ayumi's name.
I've seen it written like this 浜崎あゆみ and also like this 浜崎 あゆみ

Which is the correct way? or can it be either way? Thanks for your help.:)

Artists sometimes put space in between, but in real life, there's no space.
So 浜崎あゆみ in everyday life, or legal documents, etc. would use her legal kanji with no space.

^ I think her legal / real name in kanji is 浜崎 歩

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/7...6102324537.jpg

I thought 浜崎歩 is her real/Chinese name and 浜崎あゆみ is her stage name.

No, that picture is from Japanese high school book shown on television program.

濱崎 and 浜崎 are both Hamasaki or Hamazaki in Japanese.

歩 is ayumi in Japanese.

浜崎あゆみ is not her real name, Kanji wise. According to Japanese wikipedia, is exactly 濱崎歩。

And why would she change? Because 濱崎 is more difficult to write than 浜崎 (maybe we need to look up in dictionary or cell phone to spell 濱, because its not so common,) and 濱崎歩 is a bit too short for show business. 4 or 5 characters are prefered for names now, so 浜崎あゆみ is perfect fit.

The pronunciation for 浜崎歩 is bin qi bu. And it is her Chinese name.

The pronunciation for 浜崎あゆみ is Hamasaki Ayumi. And it is in Japanese.

Since she is a Japanese, she'll use 浜崎あゆみ.

maikaru is absolutely correct. she has also used other names. one completely different and one with just a kanji changed.

浜崎くるみ (kurumi hamasaki) for a drama and anime.

浜﨑あゆみ (ayumi hamasaki - the second kanji is different) for dramas, movies and other TV appearances.

濱崎歩 is her legal birth name folks, read the same way as 浜崎あゆみ . The latter is her stage name.

Oh you're right!
And actually,

濱﨑　歩　is actually the right one, not
濱崎　歩.

I was mistaken... kanji is too similar sometimes... -_-)||

I actually had no idea her real kanji was a different "hama". Learn something new everyday.

Haha interesting~ I didn't know that xD

Now maybe some people will stop complaining about her Chinese name being different from her Japanese one~ Same characters...different pronunciations

Every name ayu has ever had!!

Birth: 濱崎歩 (Hamasaki Ayumi - slightly different "ayumi" character from her traditional character chinese name, look closely - one stroke is different)
SOS Modeling Agency: 浜崎くるみ (Hamazaki Kurumi)
"Ryuko no Ken": 浜﨑歩 (Hamazaki Ayumi - top right radical on "saki" is different from her birth name)
Sun Music Talent Agency: 浜﨑あゆみ(Hamasaki Ayumi)
avex trax: 浜崎あゆみ (Hamasaki Ayumi)
Drizzly: AYU
Chinese: 濱崎步, 滨崎步 (Mandarin HYPY: Bin Qi Bu; Cantonese Jyutping: Ban Kei Bou)

how interesting! Her stage name is very pretty.

many girls in japan write their first names in hiragana/katakana because it's considered to be more cute. ^^ i think that's perfect for ayu's stage name.

kanji has many different pronunciations depending on the situation and even the person. アユミ, あゆみ, 歩み and 歩 are all perfectly valid ways of writing "ayumi". as for which version is "correct," that depends on the preference of the artist. most kanji will have multiple kun (native japanese-derived) readings as well as multiple on (chinese-derived) readings.