I’m a Japanese family historian and I help Japanese Americans to access their ancestors’ koseki (family registers) and to understand their origins as documented.
I’d like to know if anyone has any context or history on Japanese family names with three or more kanji, as I’ve always wanted to know how to contextualize/decipher (usually rare) family names such as 山代屋 (ヤマシロヤ) or 日南住 (ヒナズミ) if/when individuals ask what their family names “mean”.
Also, I did want to start a discussion or list of interesting family names you know that are 3 kanji (or more!) long. Leave a comment!
EDIT: If anyone is interested, here is a list of the most common 4-kanji surnames: [四・五文字名字ランキング｜名字検索No.1／名字由来net｜日本人の苗字・姓氏99%を掲載!! (myoji-yurai.net)](https://myoji-yurai.net/rareNameFour.htm) – Most common 4-kanji surname is 勅使河原, the 3,640th most common surname in all of Japan, with about 3,400 individuals with that name.
by TelevisionsDavidRose