Cute Japanese Last Names

How this list was compiled: A list by a written rule, built on 3 October 2026. Names: every two-kanji written form that JMnedict, the name dictionary of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (file dated 2026-10-03, https://www.edrdg.org/enamdict/enamdict_doc.html), tags as a surname and that holds one of thirteen kanji: 花, 桜, 桃, 梅, 星, 小, 兎, 鳥, 雀, 愛, 夢, 雪, 春. The other kanji of the name must be one taught in the first year of Japanese elementary school (KANJIDIC grade 1); for the seven kanji that stand in fewer names (桜, 桃, 雪, 愛, 夢, 兎, 雀) it may be one taught in the first two years, or the name may pair two of the thirteen. A name is kept only when one of its surname readings in JMnedict splits kanji by kanji into readings KANJIDIC lists for those characters. Names that hold a kanji of this site's list of dark kanji (black, shadow, night and the like) were left out, as were 12 written forms that are also everyday words or a company name (three of them after the check of 3 October 2026), and names whose other kanji has a meaning this site does not print. Two names (大花, 愛野) were left out because their Latin spelling stands on another list of this site that has no room under the site's cap on shared names. To these are added the two-kanji names with one of the thirteen kanji that this site's Japanese last names page holds from a 2018 survey of common names, whatever the second kanji (Sakurai 桜井, Hoshino 星野 and Kobayashi 小林 among them), as far as that page's own share of names on other lists allows. That gives 381 names. Each card gives one reading on record: the reading this site's Japanese last names pages print for the 22 names they also hold, for 74 more a reading built only from the kanji's native Japanese (kun and name) readings in KANJIDIC (where there are several, the one whose spelling is the title of an English Wikipedia page, checked 3 October 2026, and of two such the one whose page gives these kanji, else the first in kana order), and otherwise the only reading on record or the first in kana order. Two leads were set by hand after the check: Kasuga for 春日, because the English Wikipedia page Kasuga gives these kanji and lists people with the surname while Kasuka is a redirect to a place elsewhere, and Kogane for 小金, because the only English Wikipedia page titled Kokane is about a musician and not the name; JMnedict tags both readings as surnames. On every card with more than one reading, up to four other readings on record follow, and the card does not say which is heard most. The romaji is Hepburn, made from the kana one kanji at a time. What the kanji mean: for the thirteen kanji a meaning KANJIDIC gives (file dated 2026-10-03, https://www.edrdg.org/wiki/index.php/KANJIDIC_Project): its first, or its first two for 兎 and 愛, except that 小 prints small where KANJIDIC lists little first, and 春 prints spring where KANJIDIC gives springtime and spring (season), and for the other kanji one or two of its meanings there, for common characters the ones this site's Japanese last names page already uses. KANJIDIC gives 桜 as cherry; English Wiktionary's entry for 桜 (read the same day) gives the cherry tree and, in short, its blossom. These are dictionary meanings of the characters, not a record of how any family came by its name. Cute is the word people search with: the choice of the thirteen kanji is ours, and no source ranks a name as cute. JMnedict is a dictionary of names on record, not a count: many of these names are very rare, and no figure for how many people carry one stands behind this list. Shared with other lists of this site, matched on the kanji: 24 of 381 names (6.3 in 100); cap 40. Licence: Readings and the surname tag: JMnedict; kanji meanings and grades: KANJIDIC; both © Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://www.edrdg.org/edrdg/licence.html). One note on a kanji: English Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0; page titles: English Wikipedia. The selection is our own work.