Ernest Mason Satow - Origin and Pronunciation of 'Satow'

Origin and Pronunciation of 'Satow'

In his Family Chronicle (see below), Satow stated that the family name was Sorbian (Wendish) in origin. It means 'village of the sower'. The 'a' in Satow is thus—strictly speaking—a long 'a' (as in "father").

It is probable that Japanese friends or language teachers encouraged Satow to use kanji characters for his name in the 1860s, as is quite common among foreigners resident in Japan even today. This would have ensured the short 'a' pronunciation, there being no native words with a long 'a' in Japanese. The two obvious combinations were 薩道 and 佐藤, both read 'Satoh' with a short 'a'. Of these the former uses the 薩 (Sa) of Satsuma, and Satow himself may have preferred this one, as the Satsuma han was allied with Britain after 1865.