The name
"Satoshi Nakamoto" (中本聡)
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.
— Phil Karlton
The family name is a common one, and literally middle of the road in recognition. After all, it's smart to choose a name with the goal of being most common to stand out less. Still, one can't help to imagine the generation of people who made Bitcoin and their influences from the different eras. What kinds of subconscious sound patterns could have been going through the mind of the Bitcoin creator when choosing the name.
Then again, the name could be randomly chosen by an ad-hoc script for generating convincing but common names for different nationalities.
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Was this name chosen as a ruse to suggest an actor of Asian origin?
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Is some kind of pseudonym with an underlying meaning?
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Is it a brand name?
Most folks researching these topics tend to agree that this is likely not the true name of anyone involved with the creation of Bitcoin.
Name details
Satoshi Nakamoto is a common Japanese male given name paired with a family name that currently ranks 489 in the top 1000 most common Japanese surnames list1. Taking the name at face value, and exploring details from the perspective of an actual Japanese person is at least a useful learning exercise, but could also lead to other interesting avenues of research.
Japanese family names are often composed of two characters which reflect the family's ancestry, occupation, or geographic location. The meanings of these characters can vary depending on the regional dialects and writing styles used. The Nakamoto family name most commonly originates from the Ryūkyū islands region of Japan, and there are many notable people who carry the name.2
Full name format
In Japan, it's common for people to write their full name with the family name first, followed by the given name:
Nakamoto Satoshi
This is an important detail to keep in mind when researching elements of the name from the perspective of Japanese naming tradition.
Family name
Nakamoto (中本)
The Japanese surname Nakamoto is a combination of two kanji characters:
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naka: This character means "middle" or "between".
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moto: This character has different meanings depending on the context. It's most likely to have an English meaning like "origin", "root", or "source" when used as a name.
In this way Nakamoto as a family name can be roughly translated to mean "middle origin" or "central source", or even or "(one who lives) in the middle". Keep in mind that it's also difficult to arrive at a specific interpretation without more information about the family history and background.
Given name
Satoshi (聡 or 智) is a popular masculine given name in Japan that typically means "wise" or "intelligent."
Middle name
While not strictly mandatory, Japanese names do use middle name conventions (naka-iru namae and otomei namae), and the convention for their use can vary among families and regions.
To this researcher's knowledge, Satoshi Nakamoto never publicly indicated a middle name.
Name coincidences
Other approaches reveal themselves for consideration after first examining the name in the context of an ordinary Japanese individual name. Interesting, anecdotal, coincidental, or otherwise curious ways to look at the name.
Nakamoto
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By an interesting coincidence, NAKAMOTO and SASSAMAN both have 8 letters.
NAKAMOTO
SASSAMAN -
Some speculate that Nakamoto, Satoshi used in the traditional ordering, matches the initials 'NS' (for Nick Szabo).
Satoshi
- The main character in the Pokémon television series (whom Americans know as 'Ash Ketchum') goes by 'Satoshi' in Japan.
Central Intelligence
Some folks speculating on the name origin have gone as far as suggesting that the name meanings (intelligent, middle origin) and reverse order usage can imply that the true underlying meaning is "central intelligence" as a hint that Bitcoin was actually created by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Usernames
These are usernames attributed to Nakamoto, each using a version of the family and given name:
| Username | Pattern | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| satoshin | family name + given name initial | used for email addresses like satoshin@gmx.com in the Bitcoin whitepaper |
| s_nakamoto | given name initial + family name | used for SourceForge; compromised September, 20143 |