Most Common Japanese Last Names And Meanings

Most Common Japanese Last Names And Meaning Top 50

There are an estimated 100,000 last names in Japan, a vast number in comparison to most Western countries. Also, considering Korea (Most Common Korean Last Names), one of Japan’s neighboring Asian countries, has a mere 200 last names, the sheer difference is staggering. Listed below are the top 50 most common Japanese last names.

Japanese Last Names
Japanese Last Names

 

Top 50 Japanese Last Names and Meanings

  1. Sato – The to in Sato is a Japanese character for Fuji, which indicates connections with the Fujiwara clan and Sa means a bureaucratic title.
  2. Suzuki – Bell tree
  3. Takahashi –  The Japanese characters Taka mean ‘tall’, ‘high’ and hashi means ‘bridge’.
  4. Tanaka – dweller in the rice fields
  5. Watanabe – ferry side
  6. Ito – The one
  7. Yamamoto – Base of the mountain
  8. Nakamura – Village in the middle
  9. Kobayashi – Small forest
  10. Kato – Increase wisteria
  11. Yamada – Mountain rice paddy
  12. Sasaki – “Sa” means to help or aid, and “ki” means tree or wood.
  13. Yamaguchi – Mountain entrance
  14. Saito – Also known as Sato, which is number 1 in our list.
  15. Abe – Peace
  16. Ikeda – Rice paddy near the lake
  17. Hashimoto – One who lives near the bridge
  18. Nishikawa – Western River
  19. Fuji – Wisteria
  20. Ogawa – Small River
  21. Goto –  Behind wisteria, OR five islands
  22. Aoki – green tree
  23. Makino – Shepherd field
  24. Otake – Large bamboo
  25. Miura  – Three bays
  26. Fujihara- Wisteria plain
  27. Okamoto – One who lives at the base of the hill
  28. Nakano – Central Field
  29. Kaneko – Golden child
  30. Wada – Harmonious rice paddy
  31. Nakayama -Central mountain
  32. Ueda – Upper rice paddy
  33. Hara – Field, Plain
  34. Shibata – Turf/Rice Paddy
  35. Sakai –  Sake means ‘rice wine’, and I means ‘well’
  36. Uchida – Inner paddy fields
  37. Bando – East of the slope
  38. Imai – New place of residence
  39. Ueno – Upper Field
  40. Masuda – Increasing rice paddy
  41. Chiba – A thousand leaves
  42. Kubo – Sunken Ground
  43. Sakurai – Cherry blossom well
  44. Noguchi – Entrance of the field
  45. Nomura – Village in the field
  46. Kikuchi – Chrysanthemum pond
  47. Sano – Small Field
  48. Sugimoto – One who lives beneath the cedars
  49. Imamura – New village
  50. Ichikawa – City River

Source

Most Common Japanese Last Names By City

Listed below are the 5 most common Japanese last names, according to city. We have only listed the top 5 major Japanese cities for you in this worldlastnames.com article.

Tokyo – Suzuki, Sato, Takahashi, Tanaka, Kobayashi

Osaka -Yamamoto, Tanaka, Yoshida, Nakamura Matsumoto

Hiroshima – Yamamoto, Tanaka, Fujii, Sato, Takahashi

Kyoto – Tanaka, Yamamoto, Nakamura, Inoue, Yoshida

Okinawa – Higa, Kinjo, Oshiro, Miyagi, Aragaki

 

 

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