Edo Period Name Generator

Edo period names tell you a person's class before anything else. Samurai carried a surname plus a formal two-character given name (nanori) built from inherited elements such as Tada, Masa, Nobu, Yoshi and Naga, so a retainer of the Matsudaira might be Matsudaira Tadanori and his son Tadakiyo. In daily life the same man went by a common name ending in -emon, -bei, -nosuke, -zaemon or -taro, which is why a hatamoto can be both Egawa Tarozaemon and Egawa Hidetatsu. Commoners were not allowed surnames and used only the common form: Gonbei, Hachibei, Kichiemon, Manjiro, Tomekichi.

Women of the towns were known by a short name with the polite prefix O-: Okiku, Osen, Oharu, Oyuki, Oshin. Samurai women used the bare form (Chiyo, Hatsu, Tsuru, Kiku) and a daimyo's daughter added -hime. Merchants traded under a shop name ending in -ya, often a province or auspicious word, combined with the owner's name: Izumiya Tobei, Kagaya Rihei, Daikokuya Hikobei. Geisha took stage names like Kosome and Ichimaru, while Yoshiwara courtesans inherited poetic house names such as Takao, Usugumo and Hanaogi.

For fiction, samurai-type names suit officials and swordsmen, O-names and -kichi names suit tradespeople, and -ya names suit shopkeepers and moneylenders.