(09-12-2026, 11:54 PM)Labster Wrote: Japan pretty much only started letting commoners have surnames a century and a half ago (after steamships and ironsides, for those keeping track), so names can be held by pretty much only one family in Japan. And could have been, well, made up. If someone called their inn on the Tokaido by the name of Tomoe, they could easily have decided to take that as their family name. Lots of people got boring place names like Yamaguchi (mountain pass), Tanaka (mid-field), Nakamura (from the village), Ishikawa (stony river) -- presumably because Japanese love fitting in. But not everyone.
"Letting"? I had the impression it was more like requiring. And when a government requires people to have surnames, it's for keeping track of taxes.