江戸時代後半における命名習慣のケーススタディ

Abstract

Several studies have been undertaken to understand the functioning of naming practices in Japan. Characteristic customs are polyonymy, i.e. a single person using several names throughout his lifetime, as well as the "custom of avoidance of the true name". Nonetheless quantitative case studies on the topic still remain rare. In this article we examine Japanese naming customs during the 18th and 19th century, on the basis of a case study of two regions, which are located in present day Fukushima and Hyogo Prefectures. In particular we examine the characteristics of male and female first names in terms of length and composition, as well as the differences between childhood and adulthood names. We also investigate the general frequency with which a name is used. Our main findings are that male and female names have very different structures, insofar that female names are much shorter while male names employ a variety of suffixes. Moreover, there are noticeable regional contrasts in the categorization of childhood and adulthood names. In the case of male names in Hyogo Prefecture, childhood and adulthood names differ strongly, while such distinctions could not be observed clearly in the sample from Fukushima Prefecture. Furthermore, we observe regional differences concerning the age at which individual name changes take place. Lastly, within our full dataset, a majority of names are used only once or twice.