Matsuda Family History

Japanese: written 松田 ‘pine tree rice paddy’. It is a habitational name from any of the many places so named in western Japan and the Ryūkyū Islands. The word 松 matsu ‘pine’ is commonly used in poetry as a pun to mean 待つ ‘wait’ implying in this case hope of a divine visitation to a sacred rice paddy.

It is also related to the verb 祭る matsuru ‘to perform religious ceremonies’; the name therefore has connections with priestly families of the Shintō religion. Other names with similar religious derivations include Matsumoto and Matsuoka.

Several families of noble (especially Fujiwara) descent have taken the name.