Meaning of Yamaguchi as a noun

The entrance to a mountain. The gateway to a mountain.
In falconry, the act of first entering the hunting ground to begin the hunt. Also, that location. The entrance to the hunting ground.
The first sign or indication of something.
A woodcutter beginning to fell trees in the mountains.

Yamaguchi as a place

A place name in central Yamaguchi Prefecture. The prefectural capital. An abbreviation for Yamaguchi Prefecture.

A prefecture occupying the westernmost part of Japan’s Chugoku region, facing the Sea of Japan to the north, the Hibiki-nada to the west, and the Seto Inland Sea to the south.

An old village name in Kiso District, southwestern Nagano Prefecture.

Hello, Mr. Yamaguchi. This is an explanation of the origin of the surname Yamaguchi, which is shared by your ancestors and friends.

A surname derived from topography. Since it is widely scattered across various regions, it is rarely inherited through specific clans or place names. It is thought to originate from the entrance to a highway passing through mountainous areas, the entrance to a mine, or a settlement at the foot of a mountain.
In Japan, Yamaguchi ranks 14th in frequency, with approximately 600,000 people bearing the surname.

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

In the Japanese American surname ranking, it is 44th.

	Surname	Kanji	Supplement
1	Tanaka		4th in Japan
2	Yamamoto		8th in Japan
3	Nakamura	・・・	7th in Japan
4	Watanabe	・・・	6th in Japan
5	Sato		1st in Japan
6	Yamada		12th in Japan
7	Kimura	(written vertically)	17th in Japan
8	Suzuki	(written vertically)	2nd in Japan
9	Kato		10th in Japan
10	Yoshida		11th in Japan
11	Takahashi		3rd in Japan
12	Higa		1st in Okinawa, Japan
13	Kobayashi		9th in Japan
14	Nakano	・・・	46th in Japan
15	Hayashi		20th in Japan
16	Hashimoto		24th in Japan
17	Saito	・・・	19th in Japan
18	Sasaki		13th in Japan
19	Mori	・・・	22th in Japan
20	Matsumoto	(written vertically)	15th in Japan
:
44	Yamaguchi		14th in Japan