@siggy47 asked me about Satoshi Nakamoto’s name, so I’m here to report what I found and digested.
First up, I don’t think Satoshi Nakamoto is Japanese. This means that the person behind this username might have deeply personal and philosophical reasons behind his choice of name. This leads to my second point.
We’re used to calling him Satoshi Nakamoto. However, for people of Chinese and Japanese descent, our family name (aka surname) comes first. So, in Japanese media, the founder of Bitcoin is known as Nakamoto Satoshi. See the screenshot below:
Some of you have thoughtfully provided articles that explain what Nakamoto Satoshi’s name might represent. I think a shortcoming of these articles is that they tend to look at the characters in isolation. Particularly, I think it’s important to look at the surname in totality: Nakamoto (中本)
Given that 中 and 本 are simple Japanese characters (as in even pre-schoolers should be able to recognise them), I was surprised to find out that it is not a common surname in Japan. According to this source, it’s ranked 517th.
Even though it’s an obscure surname, the very fact that it exists suggests that Satoshi might have considered the etymology of Nakamoto and found it to be the best fit with his ideologies. So, down the rabbit hole I go.
This source contains a comment from a netizen that gives an account of how Nakamoto came about:
Origin of Nakamoto
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During the Sengoku period, descendants of Emperor Murakami became the Murakami Navy. One group within the navy (perhaps a kinship-based community?) was referred to by the Sino-Japanese reading "Honchū" (本中). "Honchū" (本中) meant the "central unit" of the "main" force of the Murakami Navy.
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After the Sengoku period ended, these individuals changed their name or designation from "Honchū" (本中). This may have been done to make it resemble a more common Japanese surname, to use a kun-yomi (native Japanese reading), to give it a more peaceful connotation, or to signify the end of their time as part of the Murakami Navy. They chose the surname "Nakamoto" (中本).
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In other words, the origin of the "Nakamoto" surname comes from the meaning of being the "central unit" of the "main" force of the Murakami Navy. Furthermore, during the Sengoku period, the name or designation was the more combative "Honchū" (本中), rather than the peaceful-sounding "Nakamoto" (中本).
Is this really how Nakamoto came about? Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, it’s not that common in Japan, so I guess information about it won’t be as well documented as other surnames. Maybe @JoeNakamoto can shed some insights?
But let’s look at the distribution of people who bear the surname Nakamoto.
They are concentrated in Osaka, followed by Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Wakayama. I got a bit excited when I read this because Osaka was reportedly the birthplace of Japanese enterprises. Even till today, Osaka natives have a natural tendency to talk about money. It’s not uncommon for them to directly ask you about your salary or rent. Even their greeting revolves around money!
I think it’s up to you to draw your own interpretation. Did Satoshi choose Nakamoto because it was his way of waging war against bad money or because it is associated with Osaka, a merchant city, where people are fixated on money? You decide!
Next up, Satoshi.
Here, we can consider the characters in isolation because that’s how Japanese parents decide on their child’s name. They think about the meaning of a character and how well it complements another character. Some parents will just go ahead with one character for the name.
Sato (哲) is typically paired with 学 to form 哲学, which means the study of philosophy.
Shi (史) is typically paired with 歴 to form 歴史, which means history.
Anyway, you would have noticed that my discussion of Satoshi is brief. It’s not because I have lost steam in regard to writing. 哲史 is the name conferred on the founder by the Japanese media. It may or may not be the characters he had in mind when he embarked on his Bitcoin revolution. Satoshi is quite a common name for the Japanese, so if I believe that the founder is non-Japanese, he might have just plucked Satoshi out of the recesses of his mind, you know.
Anyway, Satoshi can be denoted by other characters, including 智, 聡, among others.
Interestingly, the Chinese media uses 中本聪. 聪 means ‘clever’.
Make of this if you will. Why does the Chinese media use a different character from its Japanese counterpart? Is it because of the tense relationship between these two countries or could it due to something more innocuous?
Probably a little bit of both. Incidentally, my dad is named 聪, so I can vouch that 聪 is a more common name for Chinese people than 哲史. Like come on, philosophy and history? It makes for a refined and exquisite-looking name in Japanese, but it is just weird for us Chinese people. Too much baggage behind the name, you know?
This concludes my deep dive into the name of Nakamoto Satoshi. Thanking @siggy47 for summoning me!