I am so glad to hear that some people feel same way and/or have unique names..
One of the big reasons that I named Haruka a Japanese name is that I have been trying to go back to my route.. ahhh kinda strange eh..
I have been living in US for almost 10 years now, and I don't even have a single Japanese person I know in US. Corinne here is part Japanese.. which is nice
So I rarely speak Japanese... and haven't been able to visit home for over 6 years now.. Then I felt that I was almost forgetting all the beautiful things about Japan. And all the sudden I really didn't want to loose that. So I started having TV Japan on my cable (expensive!
) , eating Japanese food most of the days, read Japanese books...
So then when I wanted to name Haruka.. it was perfect that she was born on the first day of spring.. Spring means a lot of Japanese people.. it is the season of love, departure for something new, the time for good-bye (sentimental time because of graduation etc), young love.. hmmm what else.. it is hard to explain. Oh this is important. Spring is the time for my favorite tree, Cherry Blossom. In US, I am having a bad allegy in spring.. but in Japan spring is my favorite season...
Funny thing is that I was reading a lot of Japanese dog magazines and they tend to name western names.. I didn't see many Japanese names. Very strange..
I am in US trying to name my dog in Japanese... Japanese in Japan are trying to name their dogs in English ...
Anyway Haruka is responding to her name already (thanks to Stacy) so I am so happy about that..