He was initially called Oe shi because he was an adopted child of OE no Masafusa and assumed to be family, but he changed back to his original surname in 1111 ("Sonpi Bunmyaku," a text compiled in the fourteenth century that records the lineages of the aristocracy).
当初、親族と思われる大江匡房の養子となっていたことから大江氏を称したが、天永2年（1111年）に本姓に復したという（『尊卑分脈』）。