Yamada

Yamada in brushed Kanji

A typical geographic surname in the sense of a rice field in a mountain.
It has been popular all over the country since the Middle Ages and is evenly distributed throughout the country.
There are about 2000 place names in Yamada nationwide. That’s why there are many places where Yamada’s surname comes from. Generally, it is said that there are many places in the mountains, but there are also place names in the plains such as Yamadaso in Omi Province.
Yamada is said to be a surname found all over the country.
Yamada is the 12th most common Japanese surname.
> Japanese names in Kanji

Ranked by surname (family name) in Japan.

RankingSurnameapproximate number of persons
1stSato1,853,000
2ndSuzuki1,786,000
3rdTakahashi1,399,000
4thTanaka1,326,000
5thIto1,065,000
6thWatanabe1,055,000
7thYamamoto1,041,000
8thNakamura1,037,000
9thKobayashi1,021,000
10thKato882,000
11thYoshida823,000
12thYamada808,000
13thSasaki665,000
14thYamaguchi638,000
15thMatsumoto622,000
16thInoue610,000
17thKimura571,000
18thHayashi541,000
19thSaito538,000
20thShimizu529,000