I have read lots of books and seen lots of films and am studying the language. However in works of fiction, especially I find Japanese fiction, names are often specifically chosen for their meaning, and it doesn’t really matter if that person would realistically have a name like that in real life.
How do I tell the difference between a surname and given name? Even when I hear people talking, they could be speaking very informally and use one name, or they might still use that persons family name. It’s very difficult to tell.
I recently searched a bunch of names on Wikipedia, Takumi, Makoto, Hajime, Katsuki, Takemi and they ALL came up as family names. But when I showed the list to a native speaker they said they’re pretty much all given names… How to know?!
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Is Taylor a first name or a surname? Jackson? Henry? Winston? Kingsley?
Sometimes you just don’t know. And sometimes they are just weird acceptions. Often you can tell by how they are written in kanji, but sometimes it’s just a matter familiarity.
For the ones you posted, I would assume those are personal names unless the context suggested otherwise.
As with many languages it’s mostly just a matter of familiarity. I can tell you from looking that those names are given names, because I am familiar with many characters and real people with those names. It may also be worth remembering when names are written out fully in Japanese, it’s usually family name first, then given name, the opposite of what we do in English; and that it is much more common to refer to people by family name as a matter of politeness, unless you are close with the person (especially in fiction, where using the given name is a common thematic trope to indicate intimacy) . Even when names are chosen for meaning, the family names are often ones you could find IRL, or similar to common family names by using the same kanji with different pronunciation or vice versa.
> I recently searched a bunch of names on Wikipedia, Takumi, Makoto, Hajime, Katsuki, Takemi and they ALL came up as family names.
It sounds like you are using the wrong sources because I agree with your friends. Of course some examples are ambiguous. “John” is usually a given name, except Elton John is not named John Elton.
I don’t think there’s a totally good answer to this; a lot of it is just getting used to hearing different names. But as a rule of thumb, most Japanese surnames are topographical. Think 山田、田中、竹中、井上、田川、森本、山内、上原, etc. All describing a place.
It’s tough to tell but last names are usually locations, and first names are usually characteristics.
The most common last names are:
1位 佐藤
2位 鈴木
3位 高橋
4位 田中
5位 伊藤
6位 渡辺
7位 山本
8位 中村
9位 小林
10位 加藤
As you can see, these are almost all locations. The ones that end with 藤 are from 藤原, which means a field of wisteria.
How did you determine that those were family names via Wikipedia? Were they listed second, as in “田中 太郎” = you think that 太郎 is a family name?
Curious if you’re aware that Japanese names are written family name first, personal name.
Usually western sources will list [given name][family name], and east asian sources will be vice versa.
Learning common Japanese last names and first names will also help. And if you’re confused in a real life situation you can just ask what the last name is to be clear
even japanese people dont know how to read names sometimes. its just something that you pick up naturally by learning the language and interacting with more japanese people