姓 means “surname”

せい · sei

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

セイ, ショウ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 8 strokes

The story

Woman (女) and birth (生): the name you are born into. 姓 is the family name on any form, and 旧姓 is a former one: Japanese law has a married couple share a single surname, so one of them, usually the wife, gives theirs up.

Used in 姓名 (seimei, full name), 旧姓 (kyuusei, maiden name), and 同姓 (dousei, same surname)

More from Names & Introductions

• 介 mediate
• 児 child
• 齢 age
• 籍 register
• 仲 relationship
• 紹 introduce
• 童 child
• 幼 very young

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.