In Japanese as in many languages, proper names (names of people and places) often have a literal translation that describes some local feature (e.g. Littlefield, Whitehill, Longridge). Here are some Japanese personal or place names and their jumbled up literal translations into English.
Your task is to match up the names and the translations. Note that Japanese distinguishes long and short
vowels, but that vowel length distinction is not shown here. Note also that in these examples, mount and
mountain are different words, as are field and rice-field.
| English spelling of Japanese names | English |
| 1. Ota | A. Big slope |
| 2. Nakayama | B. Tree river |
| 3. Kigawa | C. Slope of the mountain |
| 4. Kazan | D. Field village |
| 5. Murakami | E. Above the village |
| 6. Kagawa | F. Above the river |
| 7. Ono | G. Middle of the rice-field |
| 8. Nomura | H. Little field |
| 9. Tanaka | I. Middle mountain |
| 10. Sakuragi | J. Original rice-field |
| 11. Nihon | K. Cherry tree |
| 12. Osaka | L. Fire mount (= volcano) |
| 13. Yamazaka | M. Big rice-field |
| 14. Kawakami | N. Fire river |
| 15. Honda | O. Origin of the sun (= Japan) |
NACLO 2015 Problem F by Harold Somers.