The surname Abe has three common kanji characters.

They are written horizontally in three lines in the center.
Regarding their origin, it is thought they all stem from the same root. It is likely that when kanji characters were later assigned to the ancient clan “Abe,” which existed before the introduction of kanji, various patterns emerged. Among these, the most common today is the second line, “阿部.”

In ancient times, a clan written as “阿倍” flourished. During the Heian period, Abe no Seimei, an onmyōji (diviner), emerged from this clan, and thereafter “安倍” became the mainstream form.

During the Edo period, the Abe clan, who served as senior retainers to the Tokugawa shogunate, prospered. Since then, “Abe” has often been represented by ‘阿部’. Even today, “阿部” is the most common, ranking 23rd nationally, with a concentration from Tohoku to northern Kanto.

This calligraphy does not include the ancient “阿倍”.

Japanese American Surname Ranking (U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Survey)

In this ranking, Abe is 31st.

1	Tanaka	田中	4th in Japan
2	Yamamoto	山本山元	8th in Japan
3	Nakamura	中村仲村	7th in Japan
4	Watanabe	渡辺渡部・・・	5th in Japan
5	Sato	佐藤	1st in Japan
6	Yamada	山田	12th in Japan
7	Kimura	木村 (written vertically)	17th in Japan
8	Suzuki	鈴木鈴木 (written vertically)	2nd in Japan
9	Kato	加藤	10th in Japan
10	Yoshida	吉田	11th in Japan
11	Takahashi	高橋	3rd in Japan
12	Higa	比嘉	1st in Okinawa, Japan
13	Kobayashi	小林	9th in Japan
14	Nakano	中野仲野・・・	46th in Japan
15	Hayashi	林	20th in Japan
16	Hashimoto	橋本	24th in Japan
17	Saito	斎藤斉藤・・・	19th in Japan
18	Sasaki	佐々木	13th in Japan
19	Mori	森毛利・・・	22th in Japan
20	Matsumoto	松本 (written vertically) 松元	15th in Japan
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31	Abe	Refer to the work