Although persons like merchants or farmers were not allowed officially to possess their family names, there were many examples where family names handed down from the era before the Edo period were used privately.
また、百姓､町人などは表向きは苗字を持たないことになっていたが、実際には江戸時代以前から伝えられた名字を私称していたケースも多々見受けられる。