Explore the Family Name Soga

The meaning of Soga

Japanese: written 菅 ‘sedge’, which is nowadays pronounced suge or suga. It is a habitational name, taken from a village in the ancient region of Asuka (now part of Nara prefecture). It is also written phonetically 曽我 or 蘇我, the latter being the name of the great clan, important in Japanese history. Several locales throughout Japan were named for resident Soga families; later, unrelated families took these habitational names as their own surnames. History: According to the Shinsen shōjiroku, where it is written 蘇何, the Soga family descended from the mythical Emperor Kōgen through the legendary hero-statesman Takenouchi no Sukune (see Takeuchi). Actually of Korean origin, the Soga had close ties to other Korean immigrant families and enthusiastically supported the importation of Buddhism from Korea. Prince Regent Shōtoku (574–622), the ‘father of Japanese civilization’, was half Soga and married to a Soga princess. Heads of this family, beginning with Soga no Iname (died 570), were leading scholars and all-powerful in Japanese politics for over a hundred years. They became too overbearing and violent, and finally the main branch of the family was crushed in the coup of 645, engineered by Nakatomi no Kamatari and the future Emperor Tenji (who was himself partly of Soga descent and the husband of several Soga princesses).

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.