旦暮庁 TANBO-CHŌ

Basic Building Steps

So, once you have the answers to the questions above figured out, you can start building your Japanese name. If you struggled with these questions, don’t worry! There are lots of Japanese-specialized Heralds happy to help you. If there aren’t any in your area that you can work with, you can always join the Discord server Choi Min’s Tea House and request a consult from the many Asian Heralds there, it’s something we offer to anyone in need of it. The link can be requested through Facebook, through the Known World Discord server’s Resources server, or from a local Herald that’s already a member of the Tea House.

Resources for research

While there are many different places where information on Japanese names can be found, here are a few main books and resources that I, as a Name and Research Herald, have found useful. When researching your name, or asking a Herald to do so for you, these are very good places to start.

Unless otherwise specified, there is usually only a print version of these resources available outside specific research contexts. Additionally, almost all of these research materials will be in the original Japanese, so a decent translation program or command of the language is needed to be able to use these resources. I’ve done my best to list the pros and cons of each resourse, but your use of them may vary significantly.

• The Population Record Series
  • The Sengoku Population Record / 戦国人名事典
    • ISBN: 978-4642013482
    • DOI: 10.11501/12190206
    • This book is essentially a census from the late Warring States (Sengoku) Period, and was compiled by graduate students in Japan, using documents, temple records, extant census information, and various other information to create a list and short description of everyone who was alive in that time period.
    • This book covers roughly 1520 to 1615, so names in here are generally considered documentable to the SCA timeperiod
    • There is no digital version of this book commonly available, though the National Diet Library of Japan has a digital copy available for residents. For everyone else it is print-only, so it’s not searchable for specific kanji and may be difficult to get ahold of outside of University or academic situations. You need to know the reading of what you’re looking for to be able to find it, and as kanji can have several readings depending on where it is in the word, this book requires some familiarity with the Japanese language to use it effectively. Additionally, this book is organized according to the Japanese ordering of syllables, and uses surnames to organize the information, so it’s very difficult to find a certain given name or kanji.
  • The Kamakura/Muromachi Population Record / 鎌倉・室町人名事典
    • ISBN: 978-4404013026
    • DOI: 10.11501/12191137
    • Like the Sengoku Population Record, this book is a census of people alive during the Kamakura and Muromachi Periods. It was compiled using documents, temple records, extant census information, and various other information to create a list and short description of everyone who was alive in that time period.
    • This book covers the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) and the Muromachi Period (1335-1573), so names in here are documentable to the SCA timeperiod
    • There is no digital version of this book commonly available, though the National Diet Library of Japan has a digital copy available for residents. For everyone else it is print-only, so it’s not searchable for specific kanji and may be difficult to get ahold of outside of University or academic situations. You need to know the reading of what you’re looking for to be able to find it, and as kanji can have several readings depending on where it is in the word, this book requires some familiarity with the Japanese language to use it effectively. Additionally, this book is organized according to the Japanese ordering of syllables, and uses surnames to organize the information, so it’s very difficult to find a certain given name or kanji.
  • Research on People Described in the Heian Period Diaries (Dictionary of Buddhist Monks from Tenroku 1 (970)) / 平安朝日記に記述されたる人物の研究 資料 その1 (天禄元年(970)人名辞典(僧侶))
    • DOI: 10.11501/12453944
    • This book specifically records the names of monks active during 970 of the Heian Period. It’s very specific and only covers one year, but it’s invaluable for documenting Buddhist naming practices in the Early Heian. It was compiled using documents, temple records, extant census information, and various other information.
  • Research on People Described in the Heian Period Diaries (Tenroku 1 (970) Biographical Dictionary) / 平安朝日記に記述されたる人物の研究 資料 その1 (天禄元年(970)人名辞典)
    • DOI: 10.11501/12453943
    • This book specifically records the names of everyone other than monks alive during 970 of the Heian Period. It’s very specific and only covers one year, but supports naming practices in the Early Heian. It was compiled using documents, temple records, extant census information, and various other information.
  • Heian Period Choho 2 (1000) Biographical Dictionary Part 4 (Monks) / 長保二年(1000)人名辞典 第4部 (僧侶)
    • DOI: 10.11501/12196729
    • This book specifically records the names of monks active during 1000 of the Heian Period. It’s very specific and only covers one year, but it’s invaluable for documenting Buddhist naming practices in the Early Heian, especially when paired with the 970 documentation. It was compiled using documents, temple records, extant census information, and various other information.
    • The other three parts in this series aren’t available to me, so I don’t know how helpful they would or wouldn’t be to documenting Japanese naming conventions.
• The Japanese Name Book (Name Construction in Mediæval Japan)
  • ISBN: 978-1947401006
  • This used to be the foremost book on Japanese names and naming format, 20 years ago.
  • It lists many of the elements and kanji found in historical Japanese names, and gives general time periods in which they were used.
  • This source does not fully explain connotations associated with kanji, especially when used for names, and frequently has errors in meaning or in usage. In addition, it does not explain how names were built in certain periods, nor the rules that changed or governed in one period but not others. This can lead for confusion when constructing earlier-period names, as they were done much differently than names in later periods, the form of which is far more commonly known in the modern era.
  • As this book is out of print, it can be difficult to get ahold of, and is often quite expensive.
• (Further books upcoming)

Sourcechasing resources

There are numerous online resources that, while not useful or appropriate as documentation on their own, can be invaluable for summarizing information or finding very specific information to help in the search for that perfect kanji or desired reading for your name. I’ve compiled several different online resources that can be useful for this, but please don’t cite these sources when submitting your documentation to the College of Heralds when registering your name.

• Japanese Wikipedia / https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/
  • This is the homepage for the Japanese Wikipedia page. As with other versions of Wiki, this is a wonderful resource for finding information about your name or person you want to use to document your own name, but remember that you need to check the footnotes and citations given for the information you want.
  • You can use the citations (primary or secondary source) from the Wiki pages when submitting to the CoH, but you’ll likely need to ask for significant help with the legwork required to get pictures/photocopies of the sources used in the Wiki article.
  • Not all sources available to the people who wrote the Wiki article are digitized or available outside of Japan.
  • These are all written in Japanese, and subject to translation issues without a decent grasp of the language.
• Sengoku Daimyo
  • This is the online source most everyone thinks of when they think of documenting a Japanese persona name, but it has some significant drawbacks to using it.
  • Many of the pages in this site lack citations, and while much of the information can be independently verified by other sources, this source is not considered sufficient by itself as documentation by the College of Heralds.
  • There are very good name construction guidelines available on this site, but not all the research is up-to-date.
• (Further sources upcoming)