Alright, this is something that many fans of the series
'Katekyo Hitman Reborn!' can agree on: Fandom shorthands are cool, handy and fun. Yes, they are really: They make it easy for us to shorten up our favorite pairings and getting to know them all out of your head is a real achievement too. Nice for fans who really want to nerd out, so to say!
HOWEVER.It irks me a lot when people do not quite
UNDERSTAND how these certain shorthands are chosen, especially the numerical ones.
(the letters and abbreviated names should be understood with ease, if not, please just leave- )Just an explanation for those who didn't know this yet:The fandom shorthands are chosen by the sound of the numbers, these can be either Japanese, Chinese (though this is the case by few, Ken is a partial example.) and sometimes Engrish (Take Tsuna as another partial example.) Yuni is a very special case though; Her shorthand is 01 because in Latin, the number 1 is really pronounced as Yuni. Now that you know this. Can you understand why I don't like people just slapping random numbers on their characters? It's incorrect to do so, it's pissing on established rules, just like people giving their OCs made-up flames, it's bullshit. To me, not listening to those rules shows that you don't give a rat's ass about how shorthands actually work, you just want to have a way to abbreviate your OCXCanon character pairing. And that may sound rude, but it is how it is. And you may hate me for this, but it's reality.
And I could rant on about things like I mentioned before,
but I don't want to be public enemy number one around here so I'm going to play the rest of this entire thing nice. I want to help people realize that what they are doing is dumb and maybe educate them on how to do things right. So with this I shall reach for your hand and try to pull you along through a quick little 'How to give your characters a correct shorthand'
1. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, USE ESTABLISHED CHARACTER SHORTHANDS.I cannot hammer this in enough. Those shorthands are off-limit for any OC to have. They are reserved for the Canon characters of the series, and that ESPECIALLY if your character's name does not even fit to the sounds of the numbers.
And if you don't know which numbers are already in use and which ones are not, just go to the fandom shorthand page of the Reborn wiki, they have everything in a fine and dandy list:
reborn.wikia.com/wiki/Fandom_S…2. Yes, you may use more than two digits when it's needed.Jeez people, just because Byakuran has the highest number at 100 doesn't mean you can use anything higher than that. 100 = Hyaku, that's why it's his shorthand. If you need 4 digits for a good shorthand then do it. Especially if the other numerical shorthand would be equal to one of a canon character.
3. If the first name doesn't work try the last name.Here is where I'll use Ken as my real example. You can't make 14 out of Ken's first name, so they used his last name Joshima instead.
1 = Yao in Mandarin Pinyin (Chinese)
4 = Shi
Yaoshi is sort of spelt like the 'Joshi' part out of Joshima Ken, so 14 it is!
(No the pronunciation is different, Chinese has a lot of different pronunciations, the yao of 1 is pronounced is yau. Ken is an exception here, most should really sound alike.)4. If your character has a name which you CAN'T put in numerical, just use a letter or abbreviation.Numbers are nice yes, but you're not suddenly the uncool kid if you use letters or abbreviations!
But to this, also look at rule one, DON'T USE CANON CHARACTER'S SHORTHANDS.
To make it even EASIER for everyone I shall put all the numerical pronunciations of the Japanese and Chinese numbers here that matter.in order: On-Reading, Kun-Reading, Pinyin (Chinese) and Mandarin Pinyin (if there is Mandarin Pinyin of it) 0 - Zero ... Rei ... líng ... Ma (from Maru, which can mean circle.
this is not mandarin Pinyin, it's Japanese)
1 - Ichi ... Hito(tsu) ... yī ... yāo
2 - Ni ... Futa(tsu) ... èr ... liǎng
3 - San ... Mi(ttsu) ... sān
4 - Shi ... Yon(tsu) ... sì
5 - Go ... Itsu(tsu) ... wǔ
6 - Roku ... Mo(ttsu) ... liù
7 - Shichi ... Nana(tsu) ... qī
8 - Hachi ... ya(ttsu) ... bā
9 - Kyu ... kokono(tsu) ... jiǔ
10 - Ju ... to ... shí
100 - Hyaku ... momo ... bǎi
1000 -Sen ... chi ... qiān
The kun-readings can also be used as:
1 Hi
2 fu
3 mi
4 yo
5 itsu
6 muu
7 nana
8 ya
9 konoI recommend only using the Japanese ones, since the Pinyin can really differ in pronunciation. To wrap this up: I shall take my Reborn OCs which and try to slap a shorthand on them all while following these rules!Megumi Tanaka (Lucerne)Her name is Japanese, so a numerical name is highly possible.
There's nothing to get out of her last name 'Tanaka' so we'll have to go with Megumi.
There are no possible digits for me, so it'll have to be with 'gumi'
the mi part is obviously the Kun-reading of 3, 'Mi'
Gu can both be 5 'Go' or 9 'Kyu'
Kyu sounds more like gu but since 93 is taken (thank you
SilentAcid >w< )
the shorthand will be
53SayuriSayuri is also a Japanese name, which makes it very easy to get something out of it.
The Sa is already a definite 3 (San) like in Ryohei's shorthand! (33 = Sansan, for Sasagawa )
and the 'yu' part of 'Yuri' COULD be the 9 (kyu)
BUT 39 IS ZAKURO'S SHORTHAND.So we move on. Ju is also good for the 'yu' part.
So Sayuri will become
310.
Mahina ImaiMahina is a Hawaiian name, but that doesn't mean you can't get anything out of it.
The 0 (Ma) is an obvious starter, and the last part of her name 'na' can be 7
This one is a quickie, the shorthand is
07Kala ImaiKala is also a Hawaiian name, but as you can see it's impossible to put his name (or last name) into a numerical shorthand.
So then K comes to mind.
But K already belongs to Kyoko Sasagawa.so his name must be abbreviated into
KalAlice De LucaHer name is impossible to get numbers out of in any language (Aarisu De ruuka) , and the A is already Alaude's, so her abbreviation will be
AlcI hope this educated you a little on how fandom shorthands work! That's all, bye bye now~~ I hope I helped you, or not 
small post-rant disclaimer
You can just disregard all advice I gave you, of course you can. This is just a 'How to' not a 'thou must'. But if you tell me I'm wrong with any of this and I'm just a 'troll' or a 'bully' or a 'killjoy' or anything of the like you deserve some severe slapping to the face like this: 
