Written by Maciamo on 8 September 2005
Before the Meiji Restoration, most Japanese people did not have a family name. Only the nobles, samurai and some merchants and artisans did. At the time, the vast majority of the population were peasants. The new Meiji government made it compulsory for everyone to choose a surname, using only authorised kanji (Chinese characters).
Nowadays, there aren't so many Japanese family names because the number of kanji that legal limitation on the use of kanji. It is the same for given names, but even more for surnames as the kanji used are almost exclusively geographic features and adjectives. What is more, two adjectives (e.g. 高 + 大) cannot be combined, so the total of family names possible is further limited to combination between the "geographic feature" group and the "adjective" group, or 2 geographic features together (though it doesn't work with all).
Here are the most common geographic features (including plants and man-made locations) used in surnames, with their usual pronuciation and meaning :
- 川 (kawa) : river
- 橋 (hashi) : bridge
- 井 (i) : well
- 田 (ta, da) : rice paddy
- 原(hara, bara, wara) : plain
- 野 (no) : field
- 芝 (shiba) : lawn
- 藤 (fuji) : wisteria
- 松 (matsu) : pine tree
- 杉 (sugi) : Japanese cedar
- 竹 (take) : bamboo
- 木 (ki) : tree
- 林 (hayashi) : woods, copse
- 森 (mori) : forest
- 坂 (saka) : slope
- 岡 (oka) : hill
- 山 (yama) : mountain
- 池 (ike) : pond
- 沼 (numa) : swamp, lake
- 沢 (zawa) : swamp, marsh
- 崎 (saki) : promontory
- 石 (ishi) : stone
- 岩 (iwa) : rock
- 谷 (tani) : valley
- 浜 (hama) : beach
- 島 (shima) : island
- 村 (mura) : village
- 里 (sato) : small village
- 戸 (to) : gate
- 宮 (miya) : palace
- 神 (kami) : god
The following are a less common in surnames :
- 土 (do, tsuchi) : earth
- 桜 (sakura) : cherry tree
- 菊 (kiku) : chrysanthemum
- 寺 (tera) : temple
- 神 (kan, kami) : deity
- 堀 (hori) : moat, canal
- 江 (e) : inlet, bay
- 滝 (taki) : waterfall
- 泉 (izumi) : spring
As for adjectives, the most common are probably these ones :
- 高 (taka) : high
- 大 (oo) : big
- 子 (ko) : small
- 中 (naka) : middle
- 上 (ue, kami) : above
- 下 (shita, shimo) : under
- 富 (tomi) : rich
- 細 (hoso) : narrow
- 広 (hiro) : broad
- 長 (naga) : long
- 永 (naga) : eternal
- 丸 (maru) : round
- 黒 (kuro) : black
- 白 (shira, shiro) : white
- 青 (ao) : green, blue
- 吉 (yoshi) : good
- 福 (fuku) : lucky
Note that some nouns are used like adjectives, as they characterize a geographic location :
- 本 (moto) : origin
- 口 (guchi) : mouth, entry
- 熊 (kuma) : bear
- 稲 (ina) : rice-plant
- 酒 (saka) : alcohol
- 金 (kane) : money
Interestingly, some of the most common names are some kind of exceptions :
For example, all the names that use the "ON reading" :
- 斉藤 : Saitou
- 左藤 : Satou
- 伊藤 : Itou
- 武藤 : Mutou
- 加藤 : Katou
- 後藤 : Gotou
The "-tou" suffix always means "wisteria", but the prefix doesn't really mean anything. I heard that these are descendants or partisans of the Fujiwara (藤原) clan, and that the prefix was used to differentiate the various branches, maybe by regional location based on the old feudal domain names. E.g. 武 (Musashi) in West Tokyo, 伊 for either 伊予 (Iyo = Ehime prefecture) or 伊賀 Iga, in Kansai).
Other names use kanji found almost exclusively in those names :
- 渡辺 : Watanabe => across the area (?)
- 鈴木 : Suzuki => bell tree (strange name)
- 佐賀 : Saga => Probably from the region's name.
- 三宅 : Miyake => three houses
20 most common Japanese family names
- (佐藤)Satō
- (鈴木)Suzuki
- (高橋)Takahashi
- (田中)Tanaka
- (渡辺)Watanabe
- (伊藤)Itō
- (山本)Yamamoto
- (中村)Nakamura
- (小林)Kobayashi
- (斎藤)Saitō
- (加藤)Katō
- (吉田)Yoshida
- (山田)Yamada
- (佐々木)Sasaki
- (山口)Yamaguchi
- (松本)Matsumoto
- (井上)Inoue
- (木村)Kimura
- (林)Hayashi
- (清水)Shimizu
