Kawai Family History
Kawai Name Meaning
Japanese: variously written the original meaning is 河合 or 川合 ‘meeting of (two) rivers’. An ancient family by this name is listed in the Shinsen shōjiroku. The most usual renderings are found mostly in eastern Japan; families in different localities seem to have their own different ways of writing the name. In Okinawa it is written 河井 ‘river well’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press