Yoshida
A common Japanese surname meaning “lucky rice field” or “good field,” depending on how the characters are written.
The #8,046 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 75,066 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Yoshida is a Japanese surname built from yoshi, a word that can mean “good,” “auspicious,” or “lucky,” and ta/da, meaning “rice field.” In Japanese surnames, this kind of formation often refers to a place name or to an ancestral farmstead rather than a literal description of a person. The name is commonly written with characters that give the sense of a favorable or prosperous field, though exact meaning can vary with the kanji used.
History
Yoshida is widespread in Japan and also appears among Japanese diaspora communities abroad, including in the United States. Like many Japanese surnames, it likely arose independently in multiple places named Yoshida, so unrelated families can share the same surname. It is one of the familiar Japanese family names that entered English-language records through immigration in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Because Japanese surnames can be written with different kanji, two people named Yoshida may share the same pronunciation while having slightly different written meanings.