Japanese Surnames
The most common Japanese surnames are 佐藤 (Sato, about 1.99M people), 鈴木 (Suzuki, about 1.90M people), 高橋 (Takahashi, about 1.47M people). The 100 most common names cover about one in three people in Japan.
How to use
- Type a surname in kanji, hiragana, katakana or romaji. The list narrows as you type, and Sato, Satou and Satō all find 佐藤.
- If your name is in the top 100, a card appears with its rank, reading, romaji, estimated number of people and the meaning of each kanji.
- Save the card as a PNG, or copy a link that opens the page on your name.
How it works
The ranking and the population figures come from the nationwide surname survey that Meiji Yasuda Life published on 24 September 2008. It covers about 6.1 million of the company's life insurance and annuity customers. The estimated population is Japan's total population (about 127.06 million) times each surname's share of that customer base, rounded down to 10,000.
It is a customer survey, not a census, and it is from 2008, so ranks beyond the top few can differ from other sources, and the order shifts a little every year. Ranks 20 and 21 list 斉藤 and 斎藤 apart, though they are read the same way.
The readings, the romaji and the meanings are added here and are not in the survey. Romaji follows passport-style Hepburn, where long vowels are written without a mark (佐藤 is Sato, not Satō). The meaning is the dictionary meaning of each kanji joined with plus signs, so 佐藤 is "assist + wisteria".
Surnames are mostly old place names and clan names, and the kanji were often chosen for their sound, so the meanings describe the characters and not the family history. Do not read them as the reason for the name.
Why so many names have a field, village or wisteria in them
Many Japanese surnames describe a place: 田 (field), 山 (mountain), 川 (river), 村 (village), 島 (island). Names such as 佐藤, 伊藤, 加藤 and 近藤 end in 藤, wisteria, because the Fujiwara clan spread across Japan and many families took a character from the clan name next to a place or an office. This is a widely held view about those names rather than a fact about any one family.
Names with more than one reading
The same kanji can be read several ways, and a few top-100 names have a second common reading. The page lists the main reading first.
| Surname | Main reading | Other reading |
|---|---|---|
| 藤原 | ふじわら | ふじはら |
| 高木 | たかぎ | たかき |
| 宮崎 | みやざき | みやさき |
| 上田 | うえだ | うえた |
| 高田 | たかだ | たかた |
| 菅原 | すがわら | すがはら |
| 武田 | たけだ | たけた |
| 小山 | こやま | おやま |
| 河野 | こうの | かわの |
| 渡部 | わたなべ | わたべ |
Writing a Japanese name in English
- Japanese order puts the family name first: Sato Hanako. In English the order is often flipped, so check which form the document asks for.
- Passports use Hepburn without long vowel marks, so 伊藤 becomes Ito. Many people add an h (Itoh) or a u (Itou), so a search should allow all of them.
- A name can be written in several ways, such as 渡辺 and 渡邊, with the same reading. This list uses the common modern form.
Sources: Meiji Yasuda Life, nationwide surname survey (2008)Last reviewed 2026-10-17 (2008 rates)
FAQ
What is the most common last name in Japan?
Sato (佐藤). In the 2008 Meiji Yasuda survey it was first, at an estimated 1.99M people. Suzuki (鈴木, 1.90M) and Takahashi (高橋, 1.47M) came next.
How many Japanese surnames are there?
There are said to be hundreds of thousands, and one commonly cited dictionary count is about 291,000 distinct spellings. The top 100 in the 2008 survey covered about a third of people (an estimated 42.75 million).
Is this ranking current?
It is a 2008 survey of one company's customers. It is a public source with a published method, but other surveys can give a different order and different counts. Treat the counts as approximate.
What do the kanji meanings tell me?
Only what the characters mean on their own. Surnames come from old place names, clans and occupations, and the characters were often picked for sound, so the meaning is a hint and not an explanation of the family.
My surname is not in the list.
The list holds only the top 100. A name outside it can still be common. The page does not have survey data for names beyond rank 100, so it shows nothing for them.