Editing Japanese name (section)

== Historical names ==
The current structure (family name + given name) did not materialize until the 1870s, when the Japanese government created the new family registration system.

In feudal Japan, names reflected a person's social status, as well as their affiliation with Buddhist, Shintō, feudatory-military, Confucian-scholarly, mercantile, peasant, slave, and imperial orders.

Before feudal times, [[Japanese clan]] names figured prominently in history. Names with {{transliteration|ja|no}} fall into this category. The Japanese [[Grammatical particle|particle]] {{transliteration|ja|no}} can be translated as 'of', and is similar in usage to the [[German language|German]] aristocratic {{lang|de|von}}, although the association is in the opposite order in Japanese, and is not generally explicitly written in this style of name. Thus, {{nihongo|[[Minamoto no Yoritomo]]|源 頼朝}} was {{nihongo|Yoritomo|頼朝}} of the {{nihongo|[[Minamoto]]|源}} clan. {{nihongo|[[Fujiwara no Kamatari]]|藤原 鎌足}}, {{nihongo|[[Ki no Tsurayuki]]|紀 貫之}}, and {{nihongo|[[Taira no Kiyomori]]|平 清盛}} are additional examples. These family names were recorded in the {{transliteration|ja|[[Shinsen Shōjiroku]]}}. The [[Ryukyuan people|Ryukyuan]] ruling class used names composed of Chinese characters, usually of one or two syllables and read in their [[Ryukyuan languages|own languages]], like Korean and Chinese names.

Before the government formalized the naming system in 1868, Japanese personal names were fluid.<ref>Nagata, Mary Louise. "Names and Name Changing in Early Modern Kyoto, Japan." ''International Review of Social History'' 07/2002; 47(02):243 – 259. P. 246.</ref> Men changed their names for a variety of reasons: to signify that they had attained a higher social status, to demonstrate their allegiance to a house or clan, to show that they had succeeded to the headship of a family or company, to shed bad luck that was attached to an inauspicious name, or simply to avoid being mistaken for a neighbor with a similar name.<ref name="Plutschow">Plutschow, Herbert E. ''Japan's Name Culture: The Significance of Names in a Religious, Political and Social Context''. Psychology Press, 1995.</ref><ref>Nagata 2002, pp. 245-256.</ref> Upper-class men often changed their names upon coming of age ({{transliteration|ja|[[genpuku]]}}), leaving behind their childhood name (which often ended with {{transliteration|ja|-maru}}) and taking on an adult name.<ref>Ravina, Mark. ''The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori''. [[John Wiley and Sons]], 2011. [https://books.google.com/books?id=lwt587Ex_a4C&dq=Chinese+Japanese+names&pg=PT7 Names, Romanizations, and Spelling (page 1 of 2)]. Retrieved from [[Google Books]] on August 7, 2011. {{ISBN|1-118-04556-4}}, {{ISBN|978-1-118-04556-5}}.</ref> When nobles and samurai received promotions in rank, they received new names, which might contain a syllable or character from their lord's name as a mark of favor.<ref name="Plutschow" />

Changes in women's personal names were recorded less often, so they may not have changed their names as frequently as men did, but women who went into service as maids or entertainers frequently changed their names for the duration of their service. During their employment, their temporary names were treated as their legal names. For example, a maid who was involved in legal dealings in Kyoto in 1819–1831 signed legal documents as Sayo during one period of employment and as Mitsu during a later period of employment, but she signed as Iwa, presumably her birth name, when she was between jobs.<ref>Nagata 2002, p. 257.</ref>

At least until the Kamakura Period, women's names were often descriptive in nature, while their personal names would rarely be used in public.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyler |first1=Royall |title=Tale of the Heike |date=2014 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-670-02513-8 |page=xxxvi (36) |edition=Reprint, 2014 }}</ref> This was especially proeminent in higher class and Imperial Court. An example is [[Murasaki Shikibu]], whose name "Shikibu" is not the equivalent to a surname, but refers to Shikibu-shō, the Ministry of Ceremonials where Murasaki's father was employed. "Murasaki", an additional name possibly derived from the color violet associated with wisteria, the meaning of the word fuji (an element of her clan name), may have been bestowed on her at court in reference to the name she herself had given to the main female character in "Genji". Another example is [[Taira no Tokuko|Kenreimon-in]], wife and empress to [[Emperor Takakura]]. Kenreimon-in, which was not her personal name, refers to her residence, located by the [[Kyoto Imperial Palace|Kenreimon Gate in the Kyoto Imperial Palace]].

A Japanese person could go by one of several names, depending on the occasion. For example, the 18th-century author, poet, and artist Iwase Samuru wrote under the name [[Santō Kyōden]] and worked as an illustrator under the name Kitao Masanobu. Artists and authors adopted a new name for each medium or form they worked in, whether or not they worked professionally. Some types of artistic names ({{nihongo||号|gō}}) were referred to by special terminology—for example, {{transliteration|ja|haigō}} or {{transliteration|ja|haimei}} for a [[haiku]] poet, and {{transliteration|ja|kagō}} for a {{transliteration|ja|[[Waka (poetry)|waka]]}} poet. Scholars also gave themselves scholarly names, often using the Chinese reading of the characters of their Japanese name. People who entered religious orders adopted religious names.

Death added to the number of a person's names. When a person died, their personal name was referred to as an {{nihongo||諱|imina}} and was no longer used. Instead, the person was referred to by their {{nihongo|posthumous name|諡|okurina}}.

The personal names of Japanese emperors were also referred to as {{transliteration|ja|imina}}, even if the emperor was alive. Prior to [[Emperor Jomei]], the {{transliteration|ja|imina}} of the emperors were very long and not used. The number of characters in each name diminished after Jomei's reign.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brown, Delmer M.|author2=Ishida, Ichirō|year=1979|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4f5FrmIJKIC&q=Gukansho|title=''The Future and the Past''|publisher=Berkeley: University of California Press.|type=a translation and study of the [[Gukanshō]], an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219|isbn=978-0-520-03460-0|oclc=251325323|page=264}}</ref>

{{nihongo||字|Azana}}, which is given at {{transliteration|ja|genpuku}} ({{nowrap|{{lang|ja|元服}}}}), is used by others and one himself uses his real name to refer to him. {{transliteration|ja|Gō}} are commonly named after places or houses; e.g., Bashō, as in the haiku poet {{nihongo|[[Matsuo Bashō]]|松尾 芭蕉}}, is named after his house, {{nihongo||芭蕉庵|Bashō-an}}.

In the [[late shogunate period]], many anti-government activists used several false names to hide their activities from the [[shogunate]]. Examples are {{nihongo|Saidani Umetarō|才谷 梅太郎}} for {{nihongo|[[Sakamoto Ryōma]]|坂本 龍馬}}, {{nihongo|Niibori Matsusuke|新堀 松輔}} for {{nihongo|[[Kido Takayoshi]]|木戸 孝允}} and {{nihongo|Tani Umenosuke|谷 梅之助}} for {{nihongo|[[Takasugi Shinsaku]]|高杉 晋作}}. The famous writer {{nihongo|[[Kyokutei Bakin]]|曲亭 馬琴}} is known to have had as many as 33 names.