I. Origin of Surnames

In ancient times, Japanese people did not have surnames, only first names. Later, with the development of production, especially after entering class society, clans and family names first appeared among the ruling class. The clan was a political organization in the ancient Japanese state. Each clan had its own name, which was called a "clan name". The clan name was based on the position held by the clan in the court or the place where the clan lived or had jurisdiction. For example, if the court was in charge of a festival, it was called the Jibe, and the clan in charge of the Jibe was called the Jibe Clan, while the Izumo Clan and the Omi Clan ruled over the Izumo and Omi areas. In ancient Japan, a "family name" was a title given to a clan to indicate its socio-political status. There are dozens of family names, which are similar to titles and are hereditary. There is a clear hierarchy among the family names. Examples are: Chen, Lian, Jun, Zhi, and so on. In addition to clan and sex, a new title called Miao appeared in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. Miao means seedling and branch. The word "miao" means the new surname of a family that has been separated from the original family of the clan. To summarize, the ancient Japanese family name had three parts: the clan, the surname, and the miaowu, each of which denoted a certain meaning. The name of an ancient aristocrat was often very long, such as "Fujiwara Asamune Kujo Kanzumi". Fujiwara is a clan name, Asamori is a family name, Kujo is a Hmong character, and Kanemitsu is a given name. Later, new Hmong characters were added in large numbers, and gradually the clan, surname and Hmong characters became one and collectively known as Hmong characters: in today's Japanese, Hmong is what we usually call a surname.

Among the aristocratic ruling class that had both the clan, the sex, and the Hmong character, the emperor was an exception. None of the historical Japanese emperors had a surname, only a first name. In ancient times, the emperor was considered the descendant of a heavenly god with supreme power, and thus there was no need to have sex. Not only the emperors, but also the empresses and the children of the Tengoku did not have surnames (the daughters of the emperors were allowed to take their husbands' surnames when they grew up and married).

The clan, family name, and miao character were symbols of power, so it was the prerogative of the Japanese ruling class at the time to put these titles in front of their names. The working people in general, on the other hand, have always had no family name, only their first name. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan abolished the feudal hierarchy, and by the third year of the Meiji era (1870), the Japanese government decided that all the common people could take their own surnames. However, due to the long-established habits, many people were still afraid to take their own name. For this reason, the Japanese government decided again in 1875 that all citizens must have a family name. From this time onwards, the Japanese family only have a family name, the son of the father, the wife with the nature of the generations, has been continued to the present day.

The meaning of the last name

The Japanese are the people with the most surnames in the world. According to statistics, there are currently about 110,000 Japanese surnames, of which more than 400 are the most common.

Japanese surnames all have some meaning. A major feature is the use of local names. For example, if a person lives at the foot of a mountain, he or she takes "Yamashita" or "Yamamoto" as his or her last name; if a person lives near a rice field, he or she is called "Tanabe". Many Japanese surnames end in the word "village", such as Nishimura, Okamura, Morisai, Kimura, etc. These surnames are originally derived from the names of places or villages. In addition, there are many other names that represent natural phenomena, social life, and ideology. From the sun, moon, and stars to flowers, birds, fish, and insects, and from occupations and residences to religious beliefs, almost anything can be used as a family name. For example, Takasaki means the prominent part of an island, Oiwa is the square in front of a palace, Shiratori and Kojuma are animals, Wakamatsu and Takasugi are plants, Takahashi and Uju are buildings, Onodera and Saionji are religious beliefs, and Hattori and Chin are the surnames of the naturalized people (i.e., the immigrants) who came from China to settle in Japan through Korea in the olden days.

Japanese women are required to take their husband's last name (or his wife's last name if the man is a family member) when they get married. The famous table tennis player Matsuzaki Kundai took her husband's last name and changed it to "Kurimoto Kundai". After the Second World War, Japan's new civil law stipulated that both spouses could take either their husband's or their wife's last name, depending on what they had decided before marriage. However, most Japanese women still take their husband's surname after marriage according to Japanese custom.

Three, the meaning of the name

Japanese name also has a certain meaning. For example: loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, faith, etc. in the name of the ethical and moral; Liang, Ji, Xi, Jia, etc. for auspiciousness; turtle, crane, pine, Chiyo, etc. for longevity; Jundai, etc. for the long term, wide, wide, vast, vast, ocean, etc. for wisdom. Some words indicate death, disease, evil meaning, such as: thin, hungry, thin, bitter, strange, evil, etc. is taboo, generally not used as a name.

Some names have specific meanings, such as: Yamamoto fifty-six, "fifty-six" was born when his father was fifty-six years old and named. Japanese men's names are often expressed in the content of the mighty, heroic, loyal and so on. For example, Kuroda Toshio, Okuno Takahiro, Wada Hidematsu, and so on. In addition, it is also a characteristic of men's names that they are named after their rank. For example: Hashihito Goro, Shiroyama Saburo, Nitta Jiro (i.e., second son). There is a wide range of characters used in men's names, and in general, there are currently more names ending in the characters Lang, Yu, Men, and Fu, e.g., Kobayashi Hideyori, Mikimoto Takeo, and Kishi Toshio. Before the Meiji Restoration, there were many men named "Hyoe" or "Saemon". These names have ancient origins. In the eighth century A.D., the Emperor's court established five military organizations responsible for defending the Emperor and the court, namely, the Eimen-fu, the left and right Hyobu, and the left and right Guisetsu-fu, which were called the Goemon-fu. Most of the people who were first called "Hyoe" or "Zuo (right) Weimen" were sergeants who served in each of these offices, and some of them were the immediate family members of these sergeants. However, these archaic names are rarely used nowadays.

Japanese women's names are distinctive and very different from men's. The women's names are generally more houjiki (秀丽), which is the name of a woman. Women's names are usually characterized by beautiful, elegant and softly pronounced words, such as Sayuri, Akako, Hanako and Sawako. Throughout Japanese history, many women have taken their names from the titles of their husbands, fathers, and other immediate family members. For example, the author of the famous Japanese classic novel "The Tale of the Leachers", Purple Shikibu, her name "Shikibu" is taken from her father's official position of Shikibu Chancellor (ancient court officials in charge of rituals and other matters of the Shikibu Province). In ancient Japan, except for a few women of the ruling class, such as nobles and landowners, the majority of women's names were in Japanese kana. Most of them were written in Japanese kana (Japanese letters, divided into katakana and hiragana), and this custom is still preserved among some of them. For example, the name of the movie actress Ryoko Nakano is written in Japanese as "Nakano Uetsuko". The character "kami" is a kana letter. Ending a name with the character "子" is a characteristic of modern Japanese women's names.

Nowadays, many women's names have the character "子". This is the case, for example, with the names of the famous contemporary singers Kato Denkiko and Seriyoko. In addition, there are many names ending with the words "江", "代", "美", "枝", such as "大关行江", "字野干代", "江上由美", and "太原富枝". The name of the Emperor of Japan is called "Gomei" or "Toshi". The Imperial name is given to the Emperor after his birth by the previous Emperor (i.e. his father). Starting with the 54th emperor, Emperor Inmei (reigned from 810 to 850 A.D.), the name was composed of two characters. The so-called "good character" is a name given by famous literati such as Dr. Scholar. These characters were carefully selected by famous scholars such as Dr. Scholar and court ministers for their good fortune. For example, Emperor Horikawa's royal name was "Zenin" and Emperor Inmei's royal name was "Shoryo". Many of the emperors' names were followed by the character "仁", and later the Emperor Meiji made it a court system to require all crown princes to use the character "仁" for the last character of their names, and all princesses to use the character "子" for the last character of their names. The character "子" was required to be used in the last character of the name of all crown princes and all princesses. For example, Emperor Taisho's royal name is Kahito, while the current emperor's royal name is Hirohito. In addition to the official imperial names, the emperors also have court names and elegant names, all of which are names that the emperors often use in their daily lives. For example, the emperors Meiji and Taisho had the names "Uemiya" and "Meimiya" respectively. After the death of an emperor, there is also a title that is forced upon him by his descendants. There are two types of titles depending on their meaning: one is called "posthumous title" and the other is called "memorial title". The former has the meaning of celebrating the merits of the Emperor during his lifetime, while the latter has no such meaning. For example: Shomu, Hyoken, Shotoku, respectively, are the posthumous names of the three emperors; Daigo, Murakami, Higashiyama, respectively, are the posthumous names of the three emperors. Fourth, the composition and differentiation of surnames and names

Japanese surnames with one kanji, but also with several kanji. For example: Mori, Matsumoto, Ukita, Musashi Koji, Kanji by Koji. In ancient times, there were even surnames as long as seven kanji, such as: Ogata Sayatun Kuratanbe. Generally speaking, modern Japanese surnames are most common with two kanji, followed by three kanji, then one kanji, with very few surnames longer than four kanji.

Japanese first names are composed of one kanji or taught kanji. For example, [Inuyasha] Tsuyoshi... [Morishita] Yoko, [Tanizaki] Junichiro, [Sakaida] Yoko, [Sakaida] Yoko. [Sakaida] Kakiemon. Modern Japanese name is also to two Chinese characters more, four or five Chinese characters more than the name has been very rare.

Japanese surnames and first names in the same order as our Han Chinese names, are surnames in the front, the first name in the back. However, due to the Japanese name word number of non-uniform, the knot to distinguish between the name and the first name to bring a lot of trouble. People from other countries often can't tell which characters are first names and which characters are last names. For example, Chinese people generally know that Taiping Zhengfang's Taiping is the family name and Zhengfang is the first name, but it is not easy to recognize that "Yagishita Hiroshi" is the family name and "Hiroshi" is the first name in names like "Yagishita Hiroshi". However, it is not easy to recognize "Yagishita" as a surname and "Hiroshi" as a given name in a name like "Hiroshi Yagishita. In Japanese, "Yagi" is also a surname. For the sake of convenience, the Japanese people in the formal signing of the occasion, often the surname and the first name according to various ways to separate. For example, Mori Gouwai, Namikami Kiyoshi, and Nijidoujin are respectively written as 'Mori Gouwai', 'Namikami Kiyoshi', and 'Nijidoujin'. In this way, the last name and the first name are clear at a glance.

Fifth, the pronunciation of the Chinese characters in the name

The Chinese characters in Japanese have a variety of readings such as hanyin, wuyin, tangyin, kuyun, and mundane training. These readings can be roughly categorized into two main types: one is the phonetic reading and the other is the training reading. The so-called phonetic readings mimic the pronunciation of ancient Chinese characters, while the training readings are based on the pronunciation of the kana alphabet, which is inherent in Japan. Japanese names are pronounced phonetically, trained, or a mixture of phonetics and training. For example, [Tanaka] Kakuei is pronounced phonetically, [Kurihara] Komaki is pronounced phonetically, and [Koda] Ikuji is pronounced phonetically and phonetically. Some names can be pronounced both phonetically and in training, for example, Kawabata Yasunari's "Yasunari" is pronounced phonetically as (ko osaii) and in training as (yasnari). It is difficult for others to determine which method I use. Some commonly used Japanese characters often have several to dozens of pronunciations. For example, the character for "Shun" has twenty-three different pronunciations. The following three names have different pronunciations for the small character "shun": [Miyaji] Shunmiko (Smee-zukuri), [Ota] Kuhiko (Michibi-zukuri), and [Oi] Shunichi (Tosikazu). There are even cases where two people have exactly the same last name, but pronounce it differently. For example, the same name is "Shimizu Shun", one reads as (KYOMIZI OSA), the other reads as (KYOMIZI SNAO). The existence of such a large number of homophones has caused many difficulties in recognizing the pronunciation of Japanese names. Japanese names are not only complicated to pronounce, but also do not have a uniform pattern, and even Japanese people sometimes do not pronounce them correctly. Therefore, even the Japanese people meet for the first time, often to each other to ask the pronunciation of the name and write, write the name is often to indicate the pronunciation.

Sixth, the translation of the name of the Chinese characters

Japanese people's names are mostly written in Chinese characters, the country can not help but say that it is a great convenience. Chinese translators of Japanese names, is generally used as the original Japanese characters, while the pronunciation is according to the Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation. However, sometimes there are some problems that are difficult to solve. For example, the Japanese character "和字". The Japanese people have created some square characters on the basis of Chinese characters, which are called "Waza" (or Kokuji) in Japan. For example, the character "咲" in the name Fujiwara Saki-hei (藤原咲平) is the character "和" ("咲"), which is neither a Chinese character nor a Chinese character, but a Chinese character that is used in the Japanese language. This character is the Chinese character "和", which has no Chinese pronunciation and cannot be translated into Chinese. At present, there is no unanimity of opinion on how to translate these characters.

The second issue is the simplification of characters. After the Second World War, China and Japan are trying to simplify Chinese characters, but the simplified characters of the two countries are not the same. For example, the word "ze", Chinese simplified as "ze", Japanese simplified as "shaku" (left plus three points of water). So the Japanese person's name "shaku (left plus three points of water) Toshio Den", the Chinese should be translated as "Zeden Toshio". Another example is the character "滨", which is simplified as "滨 "in Chinese and "浜" in Japanese. The Japanese name 'Hamada Kouichi', Chinese should be translated as "摈田幸一".

Chinese people read Japanese names according to the modern Chinese pronunciation, but Europe and the United States and other countries using pinyin characters according to the inherent pronunciation of the Japanese transliteration. In other words, the same Japanese name is pronounced very differently in Chinese and English. For example: Tanaka (Tanaka) English translation for Tanaka, if you do not know Japanese, it is difficult to think of Tanaka. Homophones in Japanese add to the difficulty of translating names. For example, the names "Masao" and "Masao" are both written as Masao in the English translation, and if you translate the English Masao into Japanese or Chinese, you have to choose between Masao and Masao at least.

In addition, the order of Japanese names is last name first, first name second, whereas in many Western countries the last name comes first. For example, "Kakuei Tanaka" is transliterated in Western countries as "KakueI.Tanaka" (卡库愛伊-塔那卡), meaning Kakuei Tanaka. From the English, French, German and other pinyin characters into Chinese, if you encounter this situation, you need to reverse the position of the name shall be.

Seven, the post-war emergence of new trends

In recent decades the Japanese names are undergoing some changes. According to statistics, before the Second World War, there were about 50,000 kanji in the Japanese language, and people could choose any of these 50,000 characters when choosing a name. After the war, the Japanese government reformed and limited the number of kanji in the Japanese language. 1,850 kanji were announced in 1946, and in 1951, 92 additional kanji were announced for personal names. From then on, newborns were only allowed to choose their names from these nearly 2,000 kanji, or else the government would not register them in the family register. With these restrictions, the number of kanji for personal names has been greatly reduced. Young Japanese born after the war preferred to use new and original names. The number of outdated and conventional characters, such as "郎" for men and "子" for women, is decreasing year by year. Characters such as "Kame" and "Tsuru", which indicate old ideology, are also being disliked and are being replaced by other homophones. For example, the word "turtle" has been changed to "fragrant woman" or "good name" (all three have the same pronunciation, and all are pronounced "Kamei"). Others simply applied to the Family Court for a complete name change.

Meiji Restoration shield, especially after the Second World War, in the people married to foreigners, as well as expatriates living in Europe and the United States, the second and third generation of Japanese when 4 'also appeared in a number of "foreign names". Some of these names were written in Japanese characters, such as [Aikawa] Napoleon, [Akamatsu] Paul (Jutsu I), [Ishikawa] Bunji (9M I5). There are also some people who worship Western culture and even imitate the way Western names are written by reversing the order of their last name and first name. For example, "Tatsuko Kato" and "Tokuichi Urashima". Kato and Urashima are both family names, and according to Japanese custom, they should be written in front of the first name. In the past, only women's names could be written in kana letters, and men's names had to be written in kanji. However, after the Second World War, some men (mainly intellectuals and artists) used kana instead of kanji for their names. Some of them used kanji for their surnames and kana for their first names, such as Inoue Yasushi; some of them used kana for their surnames and kanji for their first names, such as Nakanishi Reizo; and some of them used kana for their first names and surnames, such as Yayatsu Masashi and Ando Keisu. On the question of whether to write the name with kanji or kana letters in Japan has long been debated, but the vast majority of Japanese people believe that it is impossible to immediately cancel all the kanji in the name in a short period of time and use kana instead.