One of the common surnames in Japanese.
Its origin dates back to the Heian period when Fujiwara no Toshihito’s son, who was appointed as the head of the Saikyū (Sacred Palace Maiden) at Ise Shrine, adopted the name “Saito” by combining the “Sai” from ‘Saikyū’ and the “Fuji” from the Fujiwara clan.
Since the Saikyō-no-kami was from the Fujiwara clan, the original spelling used the traditional character “齋” (Sai). However, because “齋” was difficult to write, it was increasingly substituted with the alternative character “齊” (pronounced “Sei”). Consequently, the simplified characters ‘斎’ and “斉” became the standard forms.
Then, during the Meiji period, when registering in the family registry, even more misspellings emerged. It’s said there were as many as 85 different variations. Around the beginning of the Heisei era, when family registries were computerized in various regions, many people corrected their characters to the proper form. Even so, it seems about 20 different spellings still remain.
Explanation of this calligraphy of the surname Saito
The top row is in hiragana, the middle row is in kanji, and the bottom row is in katakana, all written horizontally.
Japanese American Surname Ranking (U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Survey)
This ranks 17th in the Japanese American rankings.
| Surname | Kanji | Supplement | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 ・・・ | 6th 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 |
