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

Yamanishi, 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 Yamanishi surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Yamanishi in America

Yamanishi is the 150452nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Yamanishi surname appeared 109 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 Yamanishi.

The history of the last name Yamanishi

The surname Yamanishi has its origins in Japan. The name is a combination of two Japanese kanji characters: 山 (yama) meaning "mountain" and 西 (nishi) meaning "west." Historically, this surname likely indicated someone who lived to the west of a mountain or a person whose family came from a region west of a notable mountain. This geographical-based naming convention is common in Japanese surnames and points to the family’s ancestral homeland or the landscape near which they lived.

The geographical regions likely associated with the surname Yamanishi are in the central to western parts of Japan where numerous families with this surname may have resided historically. One of the earliest records hinting at such surnames can be traced back to feudal Japan, though precise written records of common surnames were not regularly kept until the Edo period (1603-1868). During this period, surnames became standardized partly due to the increasing need for bureaucratic efficiency.

Old records and manuscripts feature various instances of similar spellings and phonetic variations due to regional dialects and the evolution of the Japanese writing system. In the Edo period, government records and local registries began to maintain more systematic records of surnames, making it the first time many families’ names were documented in a relatively standardized form.

The earliest concrete example of the surname Yamanishi appears in historical texts from the early Edo period, around the early 17th century. One such reference includes a samurai named Yamanishi Harunobu, born in 1602 and who served under the Tokugawa shogunate. Another notable figure is Yamanishi Shigemoto, a scholar born in 1645 who contributed to agricultural texts of the time.

In the Meiji period (1868-1912), as Japan underwent rapid modernization and opened up to the Western world, the recording of surnames became more accurate due to new family registration laws. This led to more frequent documentation of the surname. Examples include Yamanishi Tadashi, born in 1887, an early adopter of Western agricultural techniques in the Kansai region, and Yamanishi Kunei, born in 1892, a politician who played a role in local governance.

Fast-forwarding to the 20th century, Yamanishi Kazuo, born in 1931, became an acclaimed author known for his works detailing rural Japanese life. Another noteworthy individual is Yamanishi Hiroshi, born in 1952, who became a prominent figure in Japan's academic circles for his research in environmental science.

Overall, the surname Yamanishi reveals a deep connection with the physical landscape of Japan and signifies a rich cultural heritage that has been carried through many generations, documented in varied historical contexts from samurai classes to modern academia.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Yamanishi

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

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 Yamanishi 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.

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Yamanishi, 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!