28 How do Japanese names work?

<p>On this episode of <em>Ichimon Japan</em> we ask: How do Japanese names work?</p> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Topics Discussed<br /></strong></h2> <ul> <li>How people in Japan normally state their family name before their given name</li> <li>The complicated history of naming practices in Japan</li> <li>Commoners being prohibited from using family names during the Edo Period</li> <li>The Meiji era laws that mandated every Japanese person take a family name</li> <li>The reluctance of some people to take a family name during the Meiji Period</li> <li>The fact that many (most?) people with the surname Satō (佐藤) are probably not descended from samurai</li> <li>The fact that many commoners were given last names based on the geographical features of the area in which they lived</li> <li>The story of how the Furo (風呂) family supposedly got their family name from Minamoto no Yoshitsune</li> <li>The most common family names in Japan in 2019</li> <li>How many Japanese family names there are</li> <li>The prevalence of rare Japanese last names</li> <li>The regional nature of some Japanese family names</li> <li>The convention of naming boys based on their birth order</li> <li>How it's easy to forget people's first names in Japan</li> <li>Some of the factors people in Japan consider when naming a baby</li> <li>Asking people in Japan about the kanji they use for their given name as a way to spark conversation</li> <li>The phenomenon of siblings having related names</li> <li>Interesting names in anime</li> <li>The practice of picking a baby name based on the way a name is written</li> <li>How much it usually costs to have a shrine pick a baby name for you</li> <li>What a <em>seimeihandanshi</em> is</li> <li>What it might cost you to have a <em>seimeihandanshi</em> pick a baby name for you</li> <li>A list outlining the most popular baby names in Japan of 2019</li> <li>The Japanese naming convention of <em>tōriji</em></li> <li>How shorter names have become common in Japan in recent years</li> <li>How female names tha