渡辺, 渡邊 or 渡邉? The Variant Forms of 辺 in the Japanese Surname Watanabe, How to Type Them and Which to Use

辺, 邊 and 邉: new form, traditional form and variant

The "nabe" of Watanabe that you normally see comes in three main forms. All three are read "hen" (meaning "area" or "side") and mean the same thing, but each has a different status.

辺 is the new form set by the 1949 Toyo Kanji character form list, and its original, formal form is 邊. 邉 simplifies the crowded part of 邊 that runs from the upper right downwards so that it's easier to write by hand, and it was widely used even before the Meiji era. To tell them apart, look at the part sitting on top of the shinnyo radical (the "road" stroke along the bottom left). If 穴 and 方 are stacked under 自, it's 邊; if that part is simpler, it's 邉.

Why 辺 is said to have dozens of variant forms

You may have heard that "the 辺 of Watanabe has dozens of forms". That isn't the number of characters you can type in Unicode; it's the count you get when you distinguish every handwritten shape recorded in Japan's family registers (koseki). There are three main reasons for it.

• A very high stroke count: 邊 has 19 strokes, with 自, 穴 and 方 stacked on top of the shinnyo radical. As people wrote it with a brush, the way they abbreviated or simplified it drifted slightly by person and region.
• Registers were copied by hand: for a long time after family registers were created in the early Meiji era, town office staff copied them out by hand. In many cases a clerk's writing habits were then passed down as that family's character.
• Attachment to the family's own character: a surname's characters carry the family's history, so even small differences were treasured as "our character" and survived without being standardised.

The differences show up in places such as 自 looking like 白, a different shape for 穴, a different form of 方 at the very bottom, or whether the shinnyo has one dot or two. In Unicode, fine shapes like these are expressed with Ideographic Variation Sequences (IVS), which add a marker to the base character. Many shapes of 邊 and 邉 are registered as IVS, but displaying them needs fonts and software that support IVS; in unsupported environments they simply appear as ordinary 邊 or 邉.

In everyday documents, email and contact lists, the forms you can actually distinguish are effectively just three: 辺, 邊 and 邉. Finer shapes are only needed when the exact glyph matters, such as nameplates, hand-lettered certificates or copies of a family register.

How to type 邊 and 邉 (computer and phone)

1. 1

   Convert the whole surname

   Type "watanabe" and convert it, and most Japanese IMEs list 渡辺, 渡部, 渡邊 and 渡邉 as candidates. Press the space bar a few times or pick from the candidate list. Tanabe, Kawanabe and similar names work the same way.

2. 2

   Convert just the one character

   Converting "hen" may bring up 辺, 邊 and 邉 as candidates. If they don't appear, try "atari" as well.

3. 3

   Find it by handwriting or in a character list

   On Windows, use handwriting input in the IME Pad; on a Mac, use the Character Viewer (Edit → Emoji & Symbols). Draw or search for the shinnyo and 自 parts to find it.

4. 4

   Copy and paste

   Enter 渡辺 in the "Name Variants" tab of the Japanese Old Kanji and Variant Converter, and the three spellings 渡辺, 渡邊 and 渡邉 are listed, so you can copy the one you need.

On phones, too, typing "watanabe" normally brings up 渡邊 and 渡邉 among the candidates. For someone you contact often, register a user dictionary entry such as "watanabe" → 渡邉 so you don't have to hunt for it every time.

Which form should you use on envelopes and in lists?

In short, match the form the person normally uses. Two people both registered as 渡邉 may differ: one writes 渡辺 on business cards and email signatures, while another insists on 渡邉 in every situation. Here are guidelines by situation.

Note that even if someone's family register says 邉, their resident record, My Number card or bank account may be registered as 辺 or 邊 because of system limitations. If documents disagree, identity checks can be delayed, so for important procedures it's safest to write the name exactly as it's registered with the office you're submitting to.

Avoiding missed searches and inconsistent spellings in lists

If you search a customer or member list for 渡辺, people registered as 渡邊 or 渡邉 won't show up. Because there are so many Watanabes, it's a surname that's especially prone to missed searches and duplicate entries.

• Try all three forms when searching: search for 辺, 邊 and 邉, or search for just 渡 and narrow it down by the reading.
• Create a matching column: in Excel, use a formula such as =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A2,"邊","辺"),"邉","辺") to build a separate column where variants are normalised to the new form, and run duplicate checks and searches on that column. Keep the original spelling as it is.
• Always keep a reading column: the reading is the same even when the characters differ, so sorting by reading makes inconsistent spellings easier to spot.
• Other surnames with 辺 have the same issue: 田辺, 田邊 and 田邉, 川辺 and 川邊, 岡辺 and every other surname containing 辺 face the same problem.

Enter a surname in the "Name Variants" tab of the Japanese Old Kanji and Variant Converter and it lists the variants of each character and every spelling that can be made by combining them. For example, 田辺 gives 3 spellings, and a name containing both 辺 and 沢, such as 渡辺沢子, gives 3 × 2 = 6. It's a handy way to check that you haven't missed a search keyword.

渡部 is not a variant of 辺

渡部 is a surname read either "Watanabe" or "Watabe". It isn't a variant of 辺 but a different surname written with an entirely different character. Even though the reading can be the same, writing 渡部 for a Mr or Ms 渡辺 means writing someone else's name, so be careful. If your list has both 渡部 and 渡辺, don't assume they're the same person based on the reading alone.

Surname variants aren't limited to 辺: there are many more, such as 斉, 斎, 齊 and 齋 for Saito, 高 and 髙 for Takahashi, and 崎 and 﨑 for Yamazaki. A list of variants common in surnames, and whether each is prone to garbling on computers, is in 斉藤, 斎藤, 齋藤 and 齊藤: the four forms of "sai" and a list of surname variants.

Related reading

• Traditional forms basics: What are kyujitai? A list of the traditional forms of Joyo kanji
• Surname variants list: 斉藤, 斎藤, 齋藤 and 齊藤 and a list of surname variants
• Name characters that garble: How to type 髙, 﨑 and 𠮷 and why they garble

FAQ

What's the difference between 渡辺, 渡邊 and 渡邉?

辺 is today's Joyo kanji (the new form), 邊 is its traditional form, and 邉 is a variant (popular form) that spread from a handwritten abbreviation of 邊. The reading and meaning are the same; which one a person uses depends on their family register and the form they normally use.

How many variant forms does the 辺 in Watanabe have?

Counting every handwritten shape in family registers, it's said to have dozens. But the forms you can normally type in Unicode are just three, 辺, 邊 and 邉; finer shapes need fonts and software that support Ideographic Variation Sequences (IVS).

How do I type 邉?

Type "watanabe" and convert it, and most Japanese IMEs list 渡邊 and 渡邉 as candidates. For the single character, convert "hen", or find it with handwriting input in the Windows IME Pad or the Mac Character Viewer. You can also enter 渡辺 in the Japanese Old Kanji and Variant Converter and copy the spelling it shows.

Do 渡邉 and 渡邊 get garbled?

Both 邊 (E7B2) and 邉 (E7B3) are JIS Level 2 characters, so they rarely garble even in Shift_JIS CSV files or old business systems. The risk comes when a fine shape is specified with IVS: in environments that don't support it, the marker is dropped and the character appears as an ordinary 邊 or 邉.

What if I don't know which form a Watanabe uses for a New Year card?

The safest approach is to match the form on a New Year card, business card or email signature you've received from them. If you can't tell, it isn't rude to ask which "nabe" they use. If you must write without knowing, the new form 渡辺 is the safe choice.