Does or can 中村 mean "villager" (person) or only "middle village" (place name)?
Would alternate Kanji make a difference in meaning, i.e., 中邑 仲村 仲邑 ? Thank
you.
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2020-12-05T16:51:03.527
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meaning kanji false-etymology
Can 中村 mean "villager" (person)?
First of all, 中村 is never used outside proper names (surnames or place names)
today. Etymologically it isn't "villager" either.

If somebody says 中村 literally means "(who lives) inside village", it violates
the Japanese grammar. Here, the English word _inside_ is a preposition, which
Japanese does not have any. It should be instead like 村中【むらなか】 "village's
inside" to convey that meaning. Incidentally, it's another existing surname.

中 is qualifying 村 in 中村, and since 中 means _middle_ or _center_ , "middle
village" is indeed a possible translation, but a more context-aware rendering
is "main village".

**PS**  
Japanese proper names are full of ateji. Except for the case of homonyms, the
kanji spelling doesn't contribute to the meaning difference.
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2020-12-06T08:45:14.250
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