The surname 粂 【くめ】


The kokuji 粂 【くめ】 exists, defined only as a name. The character is clearly an
amalgam of 久 and 米 used in a man'yogana-like manner, but:

  1. Why did this particular surname get a designated character?
  2. Does the surname have a meaning, or is it opaque?

My suspicion is that there was a well-known 粂 who chose to write their surname
in an idiosyncratic way, which others sharing the name came to use. If so, who
was this individual?

The creation of ideograms is presently extremely rare for reasons related to
standardisation and data entry, but the period when kokuji were being created
suggests this was not always the case.




Taken from [here](http://myoji-
yurai.net/searchResult.htm?myojiKanji=%E7%B2%82):

>
> 久米と同様ともいう。近年、徳川家などを輩出した現愛知県東部である三河地域に多数みられる。語源は、古代の久米部の居住地や部族名、「くめ」は米のことで農耕族につけられた名称、湾曲した地形などからきている。地名としても全国に多く存在する。

Also, known as 久米. In recent times, it can often be seen in the Mikawa region
in the eastern part of Aichi Prefecture which is where the Tokugawa family,
etc. is from. The origin is the name of the area or clan
[Kume](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%85%E7%B1%B3%E6%B0%8F). くめ stands
for rice and it is a name that a family of farmer's use, also it also stands
for a geographical area that bends or curves. The place name exists in several
areas in Japan.

As for why this one got a designated character, there a lot of reasons for
that (some of which are already mentioned in the comments). Sometimes the
reason is trivial, somebody made a mistake and the mistake stuck, or sometimes
it is on purpose, for example a clan split up, so one side took 久米 and the
other side took 粂 (there is some explanation
[here](http://homepage2.nifty.com/TAB01645/ohara/p14.htm), but the exact
reason seems unclear).

IIRC, 90 percent of last names in Japan come from place names (originally,
however there is a lot more to it, so this might be an oversimplification),
and usually the place names are given arbitrary. For example, the common last
name 田中 is simply the people who lived in the fields and who took care of
them.




Taken from [here](http://myoji-
yurai.net/searchResult.htm?myojiKanji=%E7%B2%82):

>
> 久米と同様ともいう。近年、徳川家などを輩出した現愛知県東部である三河地域に多数みられる。語源は、古代の久米部の居住地や部族名、「くめ」は米のことで農耕族につけられた名称、湾曲した地形などからきている。地名としても全国に多く存在する。

Also, known as 久米. In recent times, it can often be seen in the Mikawa region
in the eastern part of Aichi Prefecture which is where the Tokugawa family,
etc. is from. The origin is the name of the area or clan
[Kume](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%85%E7%B1%B3%E6%B0%8F). くめ stands
for rice and it is a name that a family of farmer's use, also it also stands
for a geographical area that bends or curves. The place name exists in several
areas in Japan.

As for why this one got a designated character, there a lot of reasons for
that (some of which are already mentioned in the comments). Sometimes the
reason is trivial, somebody made a mistake and the mistake stuck, or sometimes
it is on purpose, for example a clan split up, so one side took 久米 and the
other side took 粂 (there is some explanation
[here](http://homepage2.nifty.com/TAB01645/ohara/p14.htm), but the exact
reason seems unclear).

IIRC, 90 percent of last names in Japan come from place names (originally,
however there is a lot more to it, so this might be an oversimplification),
and usually the place names are given arbitrary. For example, the common last
name 田中 is simply the people who lived in the fields and who took care of
them.

