【Japanese vocabulary: suffix after person’s name】 くん (kun)、さん (san)、ちゃん (chan)

On this page, you can learn about basic Japanese suffixes which are used after people’s name including さん and ちゃん.

Introduction

If you want to be polite when you call somebody’s name in English, you put Mr, Mrs or Ms in front of their surname.

In Japanese, you put a suffix at the end of somebody’s name to be polite or nice to them. Most of them can follow either surname or first name.

さん（sa n）

さん is the most common to be used in a daily life when you want to say somebody’s name in a respectful way. さん can be used for male and female.

くん（ku n）

くん is used when you want to call a boy‘s name in a polite way. くん is usually used until around the time of puberty.

ちゃん（cha n）

ちゃん is used when you want to call a girl‘s name in a polite way. It follows first name only. ちゃん is usually used until around the time of puberty.

さま

さま is 様 in Kanji.

さま is used if you want to show more respect than さん.