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

Moriya, 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 Moriya surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Moriya in America

Moriya is the 124548th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Moriya surname appeared 138 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Moriya.

We can also compare 2010 data for Moriya 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 Moriya

The surname Moriya is believed to have originated in Japan, possibly in the 7th or 8th century AD. The name may derive from the Japanese words "mori" meaning forest or grove, and "ya" meaning house or dwelling. This suggests the surname likely referred to someone who lived in or near a forested area.

In ancient Japanese records and manuscripts, variations of the name such as Moriya, Morigiya, and Mori no Ya can be found. One of the earliest recorded instances is in the Shoku Nihongi, an early 9th century chronicle, which mentions a village called Moriya-go.

The name appears to have been particularly prevalent in the Kanto region around present-day Tokyo, as well as parts of central Japan. Several notable individuals bearing the Moriya surname can be traced back to the 12th century and later. For example, Moriya Kiyonari was a 13th century samurai and military commander who served under Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate (1192-1333).

Another historical figure was Moriya Masatsugu, a 16th century Buddhist monk and calligrapher who studied under the renowned Konoe Nobutada. He was known for his work in the Shokoku-ji temple in Kyoto.

In the 18th century, Moriya Koan was a prominent scholar and writer on Confucian philosophy. He wrote several influential texts, including "Rongo Kogi" (Lectures on the Analects of Confucius).

During the Edo period (1603-1868), the Moriya family held significant landholdings and were classified as lower-ranking samurai in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate.

One of the most famous individuals with the Moriya surname was Moriya Taku, a 19th century industrialist and entrepreneur. He founded the Moriya Machinery Works, one of Japan's earliest modern machinery manufacturers, in 1874. This company played a major role in the nation's industrialization efforts.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Moriya

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

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 Moriya 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 Moriya 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 Moriya was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!