Modern Names
As Japanese citizens, Okinawans today comply with the Japanese family register (koseki) system. Accordingly, an Okinawan name has only two components, a family name and a given name. A family name is called myōji (苗字 or 名字), uji (氏) or sei (姓), and a given name is called the "front name" (名前, namae) or "lower name" (下の名前, shita no namae). The family name precedes the given name. The given name may be referred to as the "lower name" because, in vertically-written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name.
Japanese family names generally show regional variation, but Okinawan family names are known for its distinctiveness. In contrast it becomes increasingly difficult to find unique Okinawan given names.
Read more about this topic: Okinawan Name
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