Toponomy, or How to Name Places!

[Gamerprinter]

Its much the same for Japanese names. The town of Matsue, literally means Pine Tree. Kyoto means "capital", while Tokyo, is taking the "kyo" from the front of the word and moving it to the back, to mean capital on the opposite side - this is the literal translation.

My mother's maiden name is Shimizu, which means purest water. Her ancestors going back a thousand years were all doctors, some one way back when decided to use "purest water" as a means to improve the health of provincial lord, which helped cure him, thus the first Shimizu was named.

As someone mentioned in my May Challenge entry: Tanaka's Challenge, whom I chose to make "Tanaka" a lord's name was incorrect. As "Tanaka" means rice field worker - and a lord would never be named that, even though Tanaka is a very Japanese name.

Except for noble and samurai houses, whose names are generally different local plants, trees and flowers, the commoner's surnames are the place they are born. Often the word "no" appears between the surname and the personal name, which means "of". Thus Aki no Mori, means Mori of Aki.

In Japan the family is more important than the individual, thus the Surname comes first, then the personal name. Taira no Kiyomori is Kiyomori of clan Taira, and Taira means a specific flowering swamp plant. Thus Taira is a nobles name.

Strange, yet similar to western conventions.

GP

[Socks]

Its much the same for Japanese names. The town of Matsue, literally means Pine Tree. Kyoto means "capital", while Tokyo, is taking the "kyo" from the front of the word and moving it to the back, to mean capital on the opposite side - this is the literal translation.

I'm sorry to do this but that's just not correct. The Tokyo and Kyoto kanji are not the same. The To for Tokyo is East whereas the To and Kyo for Kyoto both mean capital. So, for Tokyo, the literal translation is Eastern Capital, while Kyoto is Capital Capital. They don't use the same word.