What is the Kanji for "Surname" and "Family name"?

If you are wondering what is the Japanese Kanji for "Surname" and "Family name", you've come to the right place!

The Japanese Kanji for "Surname" and "Family name" is "姓".

This kanji has 2 readings:

Its onyomi readings are "Shou" and "Sei".

kunyomi readings are based on the pronunciation of native Japanese words, and onyomi readings are based on the Chinese pronunciation of the character.

If you visually breakdown this kanji, you can see is made up of 2 parts:

The kanji "生" means "Life" and can be read as "Nama", "U", "Shou", "Sei", and "I". And The kanji "女" means "Woman" and can be read as "Jo", "Nyo", "Onna", and "Me".

Now, let's make sure you understand this kanji the other way around too.

What does the kanji "姓" mean in japanese?

"姓" means "Surname" and "Family name".

Japanese School Students learn this kanji in Junior Highschool, while foreigners may learn this kanji in preparation for the JLPT N2 exam.

Here are some words that use this kanji:

百姓: "Farmer" or "Peasant". The Japanese noun '百姓 (ひゃくしょう)' refers to a farmer or peasant. It is a traditional term used to describe people who worked the land and grew crops for their livelihood. This term carries a connotation of being a member of the lower social class or common people. For example: The farmers worked hard in the fields - (百姓は畑で一生懸命働いた). Most of the population were peasants - (ほとんどの人口が百姓だった).

姓: "Surname". The Japanese noun '姓 (せい)' means 'surname'. This word refers to the family name that comes before one's given name. It is an important part of a person's identity in Japanese culture. For example: My surname is Tanaka - (私の姓は田中です). She has a common Japanese surname - (彼女の姓は一般的な日本の姓です).

同姓: "Same sex". The noun '同姓 (どうせい)' refers to people who have the same sex or gender. It is often used in contexts related to family relationships, such as two siblings or cousins being of the same sex. For example: My brother and I are the same sex - (私の兄弟は同姓です). She has a same-sex sibling - (彼女には同姓の兄弟がいます).

To make really sure you learn this Kanji, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this kanji.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "し" is read as "shi". The hiragana "う" is read as "u". The hiragana "せ" is read as "se". And The hiragana "い" is read as "i".

Heres a quick tutorial on how to use it. You'll be asked three type of questions: meaning, reading, and writing.

For meanings questions all you have to do is type the english meaning. If there is more than one meaning, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Reading questions you have to type the reading in romaji (roman letters, our normal alphabet) and it'll be automatically converted to hiragana if necessary. If there is more than one reading, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Writing questions some options will appear and all you have to do is select the correct ones.