Find out how popular the last name Miyamoto is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Miyamoto.

Miyamoto, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Miyamoto surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Miyamoto in America

Miyamoto is the 13967th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Miyamoto surname appeared 2,159 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Miyamoto.

We can also compare 2010 data for Miyamoto to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Miyamoto

The surname Miyamoto originated in Japan, with its earliest known references dating back to the 8th century CE. It is derived from the Japanese words "mi" meaning "beautiful" and "yama" meaning "mountain," suggesting that the name may have initially referred to a person who lived near or owned a picturesque mountain.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Miyamoto name can be found in the Shoku Nihongi, an early Japanese chronicle completed in 797 CE, which mentions a person with the surname. Additionally, the name appears in various other historical documents and records from the Heian period (794-1185 CE) onwards.

The Miyamoto surname has been associated with several notable historical figures throughout Japanese history. One example is Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), a renowned samurai and author of the influential treatise on swordsmanship, "The Book of Five Rings." Another prominent individual was Miyamoto Tsuneichi (1907-1989), a Japanese diplomat and former ambassador to the United States.

During the Kamakura period (1185-1333 CE), the Miyamoto clan was a prominent samurai family that played a significant role in the military and political affairs of the time. The clan's ancestral lands were located in the present-day Aichi Prefecture, and their descendants can still be found in that region today.

In the Edo period (1603-1868 CE), the Miyamoto surname was also associated with several notable individuals, including Miyamoto Narinobu (1600-1675), a renowned calligrapher and scholar, and Miyamoto Tsunenori (1755-1843), a prominent educator and Confucian scholar.

Other notable individuals with the Miyamoto surname include Miyamoto Yuriko (1899-1951), a pioneering feminist and activist for women's rights in Japan, and Miyamoto Shigeru (born 1952), a renowned video game designer and the creator of iconic characters like Mario and Donkey Kong for Nintendo.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Miyamoto

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Miyamoto.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Miyamoto was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Miyamoto has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Miyamoto was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Miyamoto, please contact us.

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