Japanese names

I was browsing Yahoo! Answers today when I keep coming across questions pertaining to names in Japanese. First and foremost, Japanese people do not take in consideration English meanings of names. So, the name Akiyuki. His kanji is 彰之. This name has no meaning. Now, you can break it down, the first character "aki" means "patent" and "clear" while the second, yuki, means "of" or "this." So, put them together and what do you get? An incoherent noun phrase.

Now, the reason I state this page is because of questions like this.

So, when Japanese people name their children, yes of course they take in consideration the kanji they use. So, where did my in-laws get the kanji for Akiyuki from? Well, Akiyuki's grandfather's name is Akihiro　(彰博). His father's name is Hiroyuki （博之）。 In Aki's situation, they pulled a kanji from each name and applied it to their chounan (eldest son).
Let's break down the naming structure and process in Japan. Japanese people call their surname "myoji," "uji" or "sei." (名字／氏／性). The first name is simply "namae" (名前). The order of course is Surname, Given name. Let's do my name for an example. English structure is Boli Tanaka. Japanese structure is Tanaka Boli. 田中ボーリ.

Right now in Japan, there are 2,232 jinmeiyou kanji. Jinmeiyou means "Personal name use", so it's kanji that is used for the names of people. Don't be confused though. Jyouyou kanji is still used in the name of people as well. The problem is this kanji 「中」 can be pronounced as "naka" "chuu" "uchi," "ata," and "kanae" so the Japanese government wants to regulate which kanji you may use in a name, so the name can be read easily. For those of you who are familiar with Japanese, you realize when one kanji is placed next to another kanji, usually the onyomi takes place and kunyomi can be forgotten. But, there are several kun and onyomi for kanji.

I hope you all are getting the jist of what I am trying to convey. If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I'll try to explain better the usage of Japanese names and how they name their children.