Kobayashi is the 9th most common Japanese surname.
“Kobayashi” means a small forest, and there are forests that protect houses such as windbreaks and sandbreaks near the village. It is thought that it became a place name and the surname was used. There are some areas where Kobayashi is called “Obayashi”, and if you include that, it will be a considerable number of place names.
> Japanese names in Kanji
“Kobayashi” means a small forest, and there are forests that protect houses such as windbreaks and sandbreaks near the village. It is thought that it became a place name and the surname was used. There are some areas where Kobayashi is called “Obayashi”, and if you include that, it will be a considerable number of place names.
> Japanese names in Kanji
Ranked by surname (family name) in Japan.
Ranking | Surname | approximate number of persons |
---|---|---|
1st | Sato | 1,853,000 |
2nd | Suzuki | 1,786,000 |
3rd | Takahashi | 1,399,000 |
4th | Tanaka | 1,326,000 |
5th | Ito | 1,065,000 |
6th | Watanabe | 1,055,000 |
7th | Yamamoto | 1,041,000 |
8th | Nakamura | 1,037,000 |
9th | Kobayashi | 1,021,000 |
10th | Kato | 882,000 |
11th | Yoshida | 823,000 |
12th | Yamada | 808,000 |
13th | Sasaki | 665,000 |
14th | Yamaguchi | 638,000 |
15th | Matsumoto | 622,000 |
16th | Inoue | 610,000 |
17th | Kimura | 571,000 |
18th | Hayashi | 541,000 |
19th | Saito | 538,000 |
20th | Shimizu | 529,000 |