Share via

What is "Yomi name"?

Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,880 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2012-08-20T20:26:02+00:00

I'm trying to add a contact.  If I click on the plus sign below the "First name", "Last name", and "Company" field, I see a pop-up whose first two entries, "Yomi name" and "Yomi company" don't mean anything to me.  Here's a picture:

What the heck does that mean?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

  1. Anonymous
    2012-09-06T20:38:39+00:00

    Hi Brian,

    Yomi name and Yomi company name are fields for entering the phonetic equivalent for Japanese names. In Japan, there is commonly a Furigana equivalent for the Kanji name that is used for sorting and searching.

    HTH,

    Stacey

    300+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

72 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-09-07T00:15:11+00:00

    Come on, Brian. How would you suggest they do it? Dutch people commonly have a given name and a different name they actually use. 90% of Icelanders have no last name and their telephone directory is listed in alphabetical order of first names. My address in England has neither City nor State. 

    Do you expect the choice of fields to be language-specific, or perhaps locale-specific? What about those who use a language other than the prevailing one in their locale?

    Hotmail had to decide on a lowest common denominator of data fields, and for sorting purposes, the yomi is essential for contacts using a CJK language. There are already over 40 data fields (over 80 if you include those not accessible in the UI). Allowing for all possible language/locale variations would probably double or treble those figures.

    If you don't need to record the yomi for any of your contacts, feel free to leave the field blank.

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,880 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-09-07T12:51:49+00:00

    Had Stacey Hanson said "We always include that field to accommodate Japanese users," that would have explained it.  I'd never heard of the term before and I guess that I did expect fields to be language-specific.  Other menus seem to be.  I've never been familiar enough with a person from the Netherlands or Iceland to know the facts you know.  I've never seen a British phone book, so how am I to know that's in them?  When I used Hotmail, I never saw that term, so you shouldn't be so incredulous that I might be surprised by its appearance.

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,880 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-09-06T20:49:40+00:00

    Perhaps so, by why those fields appear when my configured language is and has always been English?  That's the point I'm making.

    8 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-09-26T21:32:41+00:00

    Oh for goodness sake!  This yomi business is simply nonsense.  (Even as I write this text in the reply box the word "yomi" has a red squiggly line under it indicating the Microsoft's own spell check doesn't recognize it!)  I too queried the term after bringing up HELP from being in my Contacts, "People " page and it wasn't even recognized.  For all of us, Japanese extraction included, who live in the grand U.S. of A. this term is nothing more than distracting and a waste of programming space.  It needs to be eliminated from the context for users in the U.S.  It's pandering to a teeny weeny minority in the name of foolish diversity.

    And changing "Contacts" to "People" is so lacking in descriptive value that it's juvenile.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments