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"My child... shit"
Awesome post about Japanese names from Butterflyblue.
To add: I recently heard that names that end in tou (or toh or to), like Saitou, Satou, Itou, Katou, etc., denote some kind of connection with the all-powerful Fujiwara clan of yore. (fuji = 藤 = tou). I doubt it holds for all people whose names end with that, of course...
butterflyblue:
I read that too. The members of the Fujiwara clan who went to 伊勢 became 伊藤. The ones who went to 加賀 became 加藤. The names 近藤 and 遠藤 also came from place names: 近江 and 遠州, present-day Shiga and Shizuoka Prefecture respectively. There are two explanations for the origin of Satoh, but both have to do with a famous warrior named Fujiwara Hidesato, who they say slew a giant centipede by lake Biwako (you should see the size of the centipedes there...)
佐藤 is probably a combination of Fuji from Fujiwara and either the "sa" of his hometown Sanonoshou, or the "sa" of a job title held by one of his descendants, "Saemon no jou".