A History of Surnames

Pinterest Origin: Japanese Meaning: Kaneko is a Japanese surname meaning "gold child" with the kanji  金子. Kaneko can also be used as a given name for girls.

Pinterest Origin: Japanese Meaning: Wada is a Japanese surname meaning "harmonious rice paddy" or "harmonious rice field" with the kanji  和田. 

Pinterest Origin: Japanese Meaning: Yamaguchi is a Japanese surname meaning "mountain entrance" or "mountain gateway" ( 山口).

Pinterest Origin: Japanese Meaning: Ishikawa is a Japanese surname meaning "stone river" ( 石川), originally referring to someone who lived near a river.

Pinterest Origin: Japanese Mori is a Japanese surname meaning "forest" from Japanese  森. Variants : Mouri 

Pinterest Origin: Japanese Meaning: Honda is a Japanese surname that has a variety of meanings depending on the kanji used. One meaning I found was "root field" or "origin field" from Japanese hon 本  (root, origin, source) and ta  田  (field). In Japan, the family name is usually what comes first followed by the given name. Up until the Meiji era (1868-1912), surnames were not common for regular folk although those belonging to the nobility or samurai did have them, and there are over 100,000 Japanese surnames in Japan, and some of the surnames are so common that they are shared by millions of people such as Sato, Suzuki, and Takahashi, the three most common surnames in Japan. A lot of surnames were taken from nature or place names, which is why a lot of them have nature meanings to them.