Beautiful and popular Japanese surnames for girls

Home » How to choose » Beautiful and popular Japanese surnames for girls

In Japan, it is important for girls and women to have a beautiful first and last name combination. They have a special scientific field that deals with this issue.

From birth, they carefully think over the name for the girl so that it fits perfectly with the surname, but at the same time carries an interesting meaning.

When choosing beautiful Japanese female surnames and names, you should think through everything to the smallest detail. First, it’s worth studying their meaning, origin, and history.

When choosing, be sure to take into account the girl’s character, her behavior, and habits.

Meaning of Japanese surnames

Girls always want to be bright, unusual, to attract the attention of guys and at the same time remain a mystery to them.

A good option for creating an expressive image is an unusual surname. To do this, you can refer to Japanese initials.

In Japan, surnames are treated quite reverently. Usually it has a certain meaning and serves as a symbol of the family.

The people know all their relatives going back several generations; moreover, they know where their surname came from and why it came to belong to them.

It is worth noting! A surname is a hereditary family name. It is passed on from father to children, or rather sons. In Japan, wives always take their husband's last name.

If you want to replace your last name or are interested in the initials of other nations, namely Japan.

Then it’s worth considering the popular options and their meanings:

Let's count

The oldest names in the world are considered to be Chinese surnames, which appeared about three thousand years ago, while in Europe the concept of a surname was unknown until the 11th century. Despite the early appearance of Chinese surnames, with a current population of 1.2 billion people, China has several thousand surnames. There are only about two hundred surnames in South Korea, the most common of which are Kim, Lee, Park, Choi and Ju - these five surnames make up 55% of the total population.

We started talking about China and Korea as the closest neighbors of Japan, which is breaking such an “Asian” model. Here there is one surname for about one thousand people.

Photo of the capital of Japan Tokyo

If we talk about modern Japanese surnames, the most interesting fact will be their number. It is impossible to name their exact number, but most experts agree that the number of Japanese surnames is more than one hundred thousand!

Of course, this will not surprise an American, since there are about a million surnames in the United States. This fact will not surprise even a Finn, because Finland has tens of thousands of surnames for its population of five million - this is the highest ratio of the number of surnames to the population. However, for comparison, in Europe there are 40-50 thousand surnames, in Russia - approximately 80 thousand. Therefore, with a Japanese population of 130 million people, we can say that there are a huge number of surnames in the country.

Japanese female names

In Japan, names consist of two parts - the family surname and the personal name. But at the same time, the last name is considered the main one; it is pronounced and written everywhere. A name is needed to address a person.

Important! The name expresses the character of the individual, his interests, attitude, and behavior. The name should be chosen carefully during pregnancy. It is the name that has a great influence on personality, character and lifestyle.

The table shows beautiful, rare names for girls and their meaning in Russian:

On the Internet there are popular names and surnames in English, Japanese, anime, and films that strongly attract girls.

Before choosing, you should first carefully study the meaning and description. The first and last name must suit the character, personality, they must complement the person both physically and spiritually.

Share this post

Related Posts
• How can you check the quality of honey at home: is it natural or not?
• List of necessary things for a girl on a seaside vacation
• How to decide on a profession: what specialties are in demand and where to go after 11th grade
• Women's Orthodox names by calendar: list by month
• What are the most beautiful and popular German surnames and names for girls, which ones to choose for VK and what do they mean?
• How to choose the right orthopedic pillow for sleeping?

Makes you smile

Sometimes there are funny Japanese names and surnames, or rather, ones that sound funny to the Russian ear.

Among these are male names: Banka, Tikhaya (emphasis on the “a”), Usho, Joban, Soshi (emphasis on the “o”). Among the female ones, the following sounds funny for a Russian speaker: Hey, Osa, Ori, Cho, Ruka, Rana, Yura. But such funny examples are extremely rare, given the rich variety of Japanese names.

As for surnames, here you are more likely to find a strange and difficult to pronounce combination of sounds than a funny one. However, this is easily compensated for by numerous funny parodies of Japanese names and surnames. Of course, they were all invented by Russian-speaking jokers, but there is still some phonetic similarity with the originals. For example, this parody: Japanese racer Toyama Tokanawa; or Japanese singer Tohripo Tovisgo. Behind all these “names” a phrase in Russian is easily guessed.

Revolutionary law

On February 13, 1875, a “revolutionary moment” occurred: the Meiji government passed a law requiring all Japanese to register surnames. The new law not only gave the right, but also ordered the lower classes to adopt surnames and officially recognize them!

The people understood that the state was primarily interested not in raising their status, but in maximizing effective control over conscription, tax collection and education, since universal conscription and compulsory education were key points of the Meiji reforms. As for the tax burden, it has always been heavy, and if up to this point taxes could be evaded to a certain extent, the new koseki system (the family registration system that has survived to this day) left much less opportunity for this.

Therefore, the people did not immediately begin to observe the law, which at first glance granted privileges. But resistance was useless. Such formal foundations of life as, for example, marriage were impossible without a registered surname. Thus, the question arises: what surname should a person register? The obvious choice was to register the surname that had been in use up to that time and was considered unofficial. Many did just that, but the vague fears and fears of the past, when there was a taboo against receiving an official surname to which a person had no legal right, led many Japanese to the only accessible institution of spiritual authority and its representatives who could dispel these fears, - to the village clergy.

Byodo-in Temple. Kyoto

As a result, many of today's more than one hundred thousand surnames were hastily concocted about 130 years ago by ministers of temples throughout the country due to the influx of people. The most common surnames in Japan today are Sato, Suzuki, Takahashi, Tanaka and Watanabe. Among them, only the surname Tanaka has ancient roots. The surname Tanaka is beautiful in its simplicity. Its constituent hieroglyphs are ta (rice field) and naka (in, inside). From these hieroglyphs it is not difficult to guess the meaning of the surname. Rice and rice farming have always been the basis of the traditional Japanese economy, so the combination "in the rice field" became natural and inoffensive to peasants of the early Meiji period, who were confused by the need to choose a surname.

The “rice field,” already mentioned and close to Japanese peasants, has bred into many families. If the field was wide, the peasant might call himself Hirota (wide field); if the field was located high, for example, on a hill, then the surname Takada (high field) was obtained; if the field was located near a Shinto or Buddhist temple, the farmers took the surname Miyata or Terada, respectively. The surname Wataribe is also of particular interest. Watari means “crossing, to cross”, be means “guild”. The Wataribe operated ferry services throughout Japan in the days before bridges. Today, their descendants and namesakes are known by a derivative of this surname - Watanabe.

How to address a Japanese person politely

Typically, Japanese people address each other by last name, except in situations such as, for example, in a conversation between close friends or relatives. Calling a Japanese person simply by name is considered rude and indecent. When referring to a surname (also to a given name), the suffix -san is most often added, which is used when naming both male and female persons (Tanaka-san). This suffix gives the address the meaning of neutral politeness.

Now that we have figured out how Japanese surnames were formed, you will be able to determine “where the ancestors of this or that Japanese friend of yours came from, or what they did.” And after practicing “putting together” the parts, you will be able to decipher almost any Japanese surname.

Are you interested in the most complete table of components?

And to start communicating with the Japanese, we advise you to take our course “Japanese for Beginners in Three Steps,” during which you can practice speaking Japanese and more.

Descendants of the greats

If we talk about the names of great historical figures, the main creators of Japanese history until the Meiji restoration in 1868, such as Fujiwara, Minamoto, Taira, Hojo, Ashikaga, Toyotomi, Tokugawa, how widespread are they now? Only one, Fujiwara, ranks 47th on the list of the hundred most common modern Japanese surnames. The rest are quite rare among today's Japanese.

Mutsuhito (1852 - 1912), the first emperor of Japan after the overthrow of the shogunate

Let us present one more fact. Japanese Emperors do not have surnames. Their lifetime names are taboo and are not used in official sources in Japanese. After the death of Emperors, they are called by posthumous names, which consist of two parts: a name honoring the virtues of the late monarch, and a tenno title: "Emperor".

A little history

In 1587, a decree of Toyotomi Hideyoshi appeared, prohibiting everyone (i.e. 90% of the country's population) except the samurai class from wearing two swords, in other words, it was actually a ban on wearing a surname.

Before the decree of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the division into classes was not strict, so many peasants could quite legally declare their samurai origin. Others claimed this illegally, since falsification of pedigrees was widespread during the turbulent times of feudal civil strife in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Many temples, particularly Toji Temple in Kyoto, complained that too many peasants were taking on surnames without proper permission, but they lacked the authority to change the situation.

The Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) introduced some relaxations, so most peasants, artisans and merchants managed to obtain unofficial surnames in one way or another, although not always easily, for local use only. In addition, in economic and social terms, these surnames played the following role: as a rule, “surnameless” were excluded from village meetings and were not allowed to participate in religious ceremonies.

Boats on the Sumida River. From a series of thirty-six views of Fuji. Hokusai

By the beginning of the 19th century, bankrupt daimyos were already selling their surnames to commoners, some of whom became so adept at making money that they became richer than their overlords.

Historians cite the fact that in 1829, in the village of Shimano (current name Ichihara, Chiba Prefecture), the village chief paid 50 gold ryo and received permission to have a surname and carry swords. But still a commoner with a last name had to be careful. Entering a surname on official papers or flaunting it outside one's native area was prohibited and could be considered a serious crime.