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.

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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