Nakayama (surname)

Nakayama (written: 中山 lit. "Central Mountain") is a Japanese surname.

Nakayama

Mon of the aristocratic Nakayama family
Language(s)	Japanese
Origin
Meaning	Naka (中) : Central Yama (山) : Mountain
Region of origin	Japan

Look up Nakayama or 中山 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Nakayama are descended from 12th century aristocrat Nakayama Tadachika, most notably as the mother of the Emperor Meiji, Nakayama Yoshiko. Only a handful of Nakayama today have direct ties to this branch and entitled to use the kakitsubata bishi mon.

Other families carrying the Nakayama name today may have adopted the name as retainers or servants to the clan. One such family descended from the 16th century Nakayama Iekatsu went on to serve under Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara and given the Matsuoka Domain as a reward. This branch uses the itadori mon.

Today, Nakayama is the 57th most common name in Japan as of 2008, belonging to approximately 1 out of 474 people, or 270,000 individuals. They are most prevalent in the Tokyo area.

The Japanese reading of the characters in one of Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen's familiar names, Sun Zhongshan (孫中山), is also read as "Nakayama" in Japanese.

Other notable people with the surname include:

(Names are listed by field, alphabetically by given name in the western convention of given-name, surname for clarity.)