in modern times consist of a family name (surname) followed by a given name. Japanese names are usually written in kanji, where the pronunciation follows a special set of rules. Because parents when naming children, and foreigners when adopting a Japanese name, are able to choose which pronunciations they want for certain kanji, the same written form of a name may have multiple readings. In exceptional cases, this makes it impossible to determine the intended pronunciation of a name with certainty. Even so, most pronunciations chosen for names are common, making them easier to read. While any jōyō kanji (with some exceptions for readability) and may be used as part of a name, names may be rejected if they are believed to fall outside what would be considered an acceptable name by measures of common sense.
Japanese names may be written in hiragana or katakana, the Japanese language syllabaries for words of Japanese or foreign origin, respectively. As such, names written in hiragana or katakana are a phonetic rendering and lack meanings that are expressed by names written in the logographic kanji.
Structure The majority of Japanese people have one surname and one given name, except for the Japanese imperial family, whose members have no surname. The family name precedes the given name. People with mixed Japanese and foreign parentage may have middle names.Power, p. C4-2.
Very few names are in use both as surnames and as given names (for example , , , or ). Therefore, to those familiar with Japanese names, which name is the surname and which is the given name is usually apparent, no matter in which order the names are presented. It is thus unlikely that the two names will be confused, for example, when writing in English while using the family name-given name naming order. However, due to the variety of pronunciations and differences in languages, some common surnames and given names may coincide when Romanized: e.g., (given name) and (surname).
Family names The term surname or family name can translate into three different Japanese words, , , and , which historically had different meanings. was originally the patrilineal surname which was granted by the emperor as a title of male rank. In the 8th century, eight types of were established, but later all surnames except for almost disappeared. was another name used to designate patrilineal clan. Uji and Sei used in the set: e.g., , , . Uji and together are called and also simply . There were relatively few of the medieval noble clans, and they trace their lineage either directly to these or to the courtiers of these . was simply what a family chooses to call itself, as opposed to the granted by the emperor. While it was passed on patrilineally in male ancestors including in (uncles), one had a certain degree of freedom in changing one's . See also .
According to estimates, there are over 300,000 different surnames in use today in Japan. The three most common family names in Japan are , , and . People in Japan began using surnames during the Muromachi period.https://news.goo.ne.jp/amp/article/postseven/trend/postseven-581287.html Japanese peasants had surnames in the Edo period; however, they could not use them in public.
Most surnames are written with two kanji characters, but some common surnames are written with one or three kanji. Some surnames written with four or five kanji exist, such as , but these are rare.
One large category of family names can be categorized as names. The kanji , meaning wisteria, has the (or, with , ). Many Japanese people have surnames that include this kanji as the second character. This is because the gave their samurai surnames () ending with the first character of their name (which can be pronounced either or ), to denote their status in an era when commoners were not allowed surnames. Examples include Atō, Andō, Itō (although a different final kanji is also common), Udō, Etō, Endō, Gotō, Jitō, Katō, Kitō, Kudō, Kondō, Saitō, Satō, Shindō, Sudō, Naitō, Bitō, and Mutō. As already noted, some of the most common family names are in this list.
Japanese family names usually include characters referring to places and geographic features.Hakes, Molly. The Everything Conversational Japanese Book: Basic Instruction For Speaking This Fascinating Language In Any Setting. Everything Books, 2004. 120. Retrieved from Google Books on August 8, 2011. , .
Given names Given names are called the or , because, in vertically written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name.Hakes, Molly. The Everything Conversational Japanese Book: Basic Instruction For Speaking This Fascinating Language In Any Setting. Everything Books, 2004. 119. Retrieved from Google Books on August 8, 2011. , .
While family names follow relatively consistent rules, given names are much more diverse in pronunciation and characters. While many common names can easily be spelled or pronounced, parents may choose names with unusual characters or pronunciations; the pronunciation of such names generally cannot be inferred from the written form, or vice versa. Unusual pronunciations have become much more common, as the trend has significantly increased in popularity since the 1990s. For example, the popular masculine name is traditionally pronounced "Hiroto", but in recent years alternative pronunciations "Haruto", "Yamato", "Taiga", "Sora", "Taito", "Daito", and "Masato" have all entered use.
Male names often end in (e.g. "Ichirō"), (e.g. "Kenta"), or (e.g. "Teruo" or "Akio"). Male names often also contain (e.g. "Ken'ichi"), (also written with , along with several other possible characters; e.g. "Kazuhiro"), (e.g. "Jirō"), or (e.g. "Daichi").
Female names often end in (e.g. "Keiko") or (e.g. "Yumi").Hakes, Molly. The Everything Conversational Japanese Book: Basic Instruction For Speaking This Fascinating Language In Any Setting. Everything Books, 2004. 121. Retrieved from Google Books on August 8, 2011. , . Other popular endings for female names include (e.g. "Reika") and (e.g. "Haruna").
Most personal names use one, two, or three kanji. Four-syllable given names are common, especially in eldest sons.Hakes, Molly. The Everything Conversational Japanese Book: Basic Instruction For Speaking This Fascinating Language In Any Setting. Everything Books, 2004. 122. Retrieved from Google Books on August 8, 2011. , .
The usage of has changed significantly over the years: prior to the Meiji Restoration (1868), it was reserved for members of the imperial family. Following the restoration, it became popular and was overwhelmingly common in the Taishō and early Shōwa era. The suffix increased in popularity after the mid-20th century.
Around the year 2006, due to the citizenry mimicking naming habits of popular entertainers, the suffix was declining in popularity. At the same time, names of western origin, written in kana, were becoming increasingly popular for naming of girls. By 2004 there was a trend of using hiragana instead of kanji in naming girls.
Molly Hakes said that this may have to do with using hiragana out of cultural pride, since hiragana is Japan's indigenous writing form, or out of not assigning a meaning to a girl's name so that others do not have a particular expectation of her.
Names ending with dropped significantly in popularity in the mid-1980s, but are still given, though much less than in the past. Male names occasionally end with the syllable as in Mako, but very rarely using the kanji (most often, if a male name ends in , it ends in , using the kanji meaning "boy"). Common male name endings are and ; names ending with are often adjectives, e.g., Atsushi, which might mean, for example, "(to be) faithful."
Katakana and hiragana spellings are characteristic of feminine names rather than masculine names, with katakana often used for women's names in the early 20th century due to being easier to read and write.
A single name-forming element, such as can be written by more than one kanji (, , or ). Conversely, a particular kanji can have multiple meanings and pronunciations. In some names, Japanese characters phonetically "spell" a name and have no intended meaning behind them. Many Japanese personal names use puns.Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press, 2006. Appendix 8: Japanese Names. Retrieved from Google Books on April 1, 2012. , .
Although usually written in kanji, Japanese names have distinct differences from Chinese names through the selection of characters in a name and the pronunciation of them. A Japanese person can distinguish a Japanese name from a Chinese name. Akie Tomozawa said that this was equivalent to how "Europeans can easily tell that the name 'Smith' is English and 'Schmidt' is German or that 'Victor' is English or French and 'Vittorio' is Italian".Tomozawa, Akie. Chapter 6: "Japan's Hidden Bilinguals: The Languages of 'War Orphans' and Their Families After Repatriation From China." In: Noguchi, Mary Goebel and Sandra Fotos (editors). Studies in Japanese Bilingualism. Multilingual Matters, 2001. 158-159. Retrieved from Google Books on October 25, 2012. , 9781853594892.
Characters Japanese names are usually written in kanji, although some names use hiragana or even katakana, or a mixture of kanji and kana. While most "traditional" names use (native Japanese) kanji readings, a large number of given names and surnames use (Japanese sound, often Chinese-based) kanji readings as well. Many others use readings which are only used in names (), such as the female name .
The sound , indicating possession (like the Saxon genitive in English), and corresponding to the character , is often included in names but not written as a separate character, as in the common name , or historical figures such as Sen no Rikyū.Otake, Tomoko, "What to call baby?", Japan Times, 22 January 2012, p. 7.
Difficulty of reading names
A name written in kanji may have more than one common pronunciation, only one of which is correct for a given individual. For example, the surname written in kanji as may be read either or . Conversely, any one name may have several possible written forms, and again, only one will be correct for a given individual. The character when used as a male given name may be used as the written form for "Hajime", "Hitoshi", "Ichi-/-ichi" "Kazu-/-kazu", and many others. The name Hajime may be written with any of the following: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or . This many-to-many correspondence between names and the ways they are written is much more common with male given names than with surnames or female given names but can be observed in all these categories. The permutations of potential characters and sounds can become enormous, as some very overloaded sounds may be produced by over 500 distinct kanji and some kanji characters can stand for several dozen sounds. This can and does make the collation, pronunciation, and romanization of a Japanese name a very difficult problem. For this reason, business cards often include the pronunciation of the name as furigana, and forms and documents often include spaces to write the reading of the name in kana (usually katakana).
A few Japanese names, particularly family names, include archaic versions of characters. For example, the very common character , "island", may be written as or instead of the usual . Some names also feature very uncommon kanji, or even kanji which no longer exist in modern Japanese. Japanese people who have such names are likely to compromise by substituting similar or simplified characters. This may be difficult for input of kanji in computers, as many kanji databases on computers only include common and regularly used kanji, and many archaic or mostly unused characters are not included.