Frequency: (760)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Japanese: variously written, most usually with the characters for ‘rice wine (sake)’ and ‘well’. The latter family is descended from the Tokugawa family, and took its name from the village of Sakai in Izumi (now part of Ōsaka prefecture), though the name of the village is written with a character meaning ‘boundary’. Another family's name, meaning ‘well at the slope’, is listed in the Shinsen shōjiroku, but written with yet another set of characters.
GIVEN NAMES: Japanese 55%. Hiroshi (6), Shoko (5), Kazuo (3), Kenji (3), Tomoko (3), Toshio (3), Yoshio (3), Akio (2), Atsushi (2), Ayako (2), Chie (2), Fumiyo (2).
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
