Japanese names

I am always fascinated on how different cultures devise names.

Until the reforms of the Meiji period, one's "name" would essentially be a description of one's family...

"...Here's how it breaks down: Saito, the family name, refers to a real or fictitious ancestor's official post as head of ritual purification (sai) at Ise Grand Shrine in present-day Mie Prefecture, the nation's holiest Shinto site. Ichiro, meaning "first-born son" (just as Jiro means "second son," Saburo "third son," and so on) isn't so much a name, as it would be today, as a kind of decoy — more on that in a moment. Sama-no-kami means "Head of the Left Horse Stables," an ancient title evocative of ancestry serving in the Imperial Palace, where all duties were divided for symmetry into "left" and "right." Minamoto is a clan name. Ason is another ancient title, of the sort known as kabane — there were eight in all, awarded to clan chieftains most eligible for hereditary government office. And Tadayoshi is the personal name, whose utterance in everyday situations that decoy "Ichiro" made unnecessary. Why was that desirable? Because in Japan until the Meiji Era, personal names — used sparingly even today — were taboo..."

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