It's not that high, really—can't be compared with those Daimyo with hundreds of thousands of koku. He's probably a local powerful clan?
But, his family name is Maeda…
Could it be the future Maeda Toshie of "Kaga—one million koku" fame?
The "dog" in "Monkey and Dog"?
Nozawa immediately pressed on, "What is Lord Maeda's full name?"
"It's Maeda Kurando Toshimasa-sama." Yayoi did know, probably because he's the direct Lord.
Nozawa pondered again—Maeda Kurando Toshimasa?
Oh, right, at this time, Japanese people used formal names. The name format was "house name + formal name + given name." Further back, it was "clan + surname + house name + formal name + given name," unlike modern Japanese, who usually just use "family name + given name." Much simpler.
The "clan" marks the origin of a bloodline, or is derived from a place name, like Soga, Chiyu, Naga, Katsuragi; or from immigrants, like Qin, Han, Song, Goguryeo, Sui, Han; or from professions, like Hattori, Chancellor, Toriyama; or bestowed by the Japanese Emperor, such as Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara, Tachibana.
"Surname" was meant to distinguish status, generally granted by the Court. At first these were "ancient surnames" like Mahito, Kimi, Oomi, Agatanushi, Suke, Muraji, and the like; eventually unified into the "eight-colored surnames," ranked: Mahito (reserved for the imperial family), Asomi, Sukune, Imiki, Michinoshi, Omi, Muraji, Inagi.
But as the Minamoto, Taira, Fujiwara, and Tachibana lines all received the "Asomi" surname, surnames eventually lost their status-distinguishing function in Japan, and were abandoned. By the Muromachi Era, unless it was an ancestral or religious ceremony, people rarely used them in daily life.
The "house name" usually came from the family residence's location.
During the Heian Era, when the Fujiwara as regents had reached the height of their power, from Court to local officials, everyone was a Fujiwara. Look out over Heian-kyo and everyone notable is named Fujiwara; shout "Lord Fujiwara" in the street, and at least twenty people will answer.
So, to tell each other apart, they started using their mansion's location for reference—like Ichijō, meaning the First Avenue of Heian-kyo.
If the residence moved, the form of address changed too. Plus, since Heian marriage customs were influenced by China—shifting from "marriages by visit" (husband and wife, even kids, didn't live together; husband regularly traveled to visit wife for conjugal matters) to "wife-taking marriages" (husband builds a house, brings wife home, whole family living together)—names derived from the house naturally passed from father to son, gradually becoming hereditary house names.
For example, this Maeda Kurando Toshimasa: in ancient Japanese, Maeda and Nitta mean the same thing. It's highly likely his ancestors, for some reason, came to Owari Province, cultivated new rice paddies, and built a settlement there—so, full of joy, they named it "Maeda." Their house name became Maeda and has been handed down ever since.
Now they still use Maeda as the house name, even after moving to Hosokawa Castle from Maeda Castle, which was abandoned for some reason.
As for "formal name" and "given name"—the former is for others to address you, the latter for your own use. This is similar to ancient Huaxia customs.
For example, Zhuge Kongming: his surname is Zhuge (the Ge clan moved to Zhucheng, hence Zhuge as their surname); his given name, Liang; his style name, Kongming. So if you time-travel to the Three Kingdoms, to call him "Zhuge Liang" outright is extremely rude: you should call him "Kongming" or "Lord Zhuge." Only he himself could use "Liang" in self-reference.
Same situation in the Japanese Middle Ages. "Formal names" are like Huaxia style names, used by others, often drawn from childhood names, titles, or religious names, changed according to age or rank; the "given name" is for self-reference.
So, Maeda Kurando Toshimasa: Maeda is the house name, Kurando the formal name, Toshimasa the given name.
If you want to mention him, either call him "Lord Maeda" or "Lord Kurando"—like "Mr. Zhao" or "Director." Or, if you're a relative or someone of much higher status, you could use the childhood name or nickname, like "Ranmaru" or "Inu Chiyoda," just like calling someone "Little Egg" or "Doggy" now. But you must never call him "Maeda Toshimasa"—that's almost an insult, and almost certainly hostile; you'll likely end up drawing swords and fighting.
As for the family name, it didn't evolve from house names until much later in Japanese history; at this stage, things haven't yet been abbreviated like that.
Also, there's the fact that, at this time, Japan was rife with "fake names." Looking just at formal names, there could easily be eight Iga Guardians, six Higo Guardians, tens of thousands of Shinemon, Zuomen, Uemon, Hyouemon, Gate Captains—all Court offices were limited in number, but there were far more Samurai. Everyone couldn't have one, and many were vain enough to stick official-sounding titles onto themselves, or glorify their ancestors, then "inherit" them as their own formal name.
Same goes for the common folk. Ordinary people in Japan had neither the right nor the means to take on house names and often just made up names, leading to all sorts of fake names.
Take "Jūbei," for example. That's obviously a fake: most likely, after becoming a House Child in the Lang Faction, he felt he'd gained some status (no longer an ordinary farmer, who at least had some personal freedom as a tenant) and made up a new name for himself. No way this would exist in the official military structure of the Japanese Court.
On the other hand, "Jiulang" is more of an honest name—just means "the ninth child Jiro born." That's very much in keeping with rural Japan's naming customs of the period.
This was something Nozawa figured out as a kid watching "Ikkyu the Genius," wondering why that big dumb Samurai was called "Shinemon," such a weird name. He also wondered how a little Monk would dare kick the Shogunate's general into a pond. After looking it up, he realized—Shinemon is a formal name, for others to use. His full name is Nunokawa Shinemon Chikatsune. As for Ikkyu the Monk, he was the Japanese Emperor's own son, pushed into monkhood young due to court struggles during the Southern and Northern Dynasties—the idea was to keep him from being used by the Southern Dynasty to compete for the throne. So, he could safely kick Ashikaga Shogun in the butt without worrying about losing his head.
Hence, watching anime can be useful. If he hadn't looked that up all those years ago, he probably wouldn't even understand what little Yayoi was saying to him now.
Nozawa felt more at ease again. At least, when he dealt with other Samurai, proper forms of address wouldn't be a problem, so he wouldn't accidentally "insult" someone and wind up getting stabbed out of nowhere.
Yayoi saw Nozawa lose himself in thought again mid-question, thinking this adult was quite absent-minded. She hesitated, then carefully asked, "My lord, may I ask… how should I address you and that other lord?"
She'd been wanting to ask for a while, and now she took the opportunity.
Nozawa snapped back to reality. Given the current circumstances, safety was paramount. Revealing his identity as a foreigner could be dangerous, so after a moment's thought, he smiled and said, "Our names? He's sick, you don't need to worry about him. As for me… uh… I'm Nohara Saburo Ieto."
His hometown was in the Central Plains, and the place name had "No" (field) in it, so his uncle gave him a name that included "No." Now, it conveniently served as a house name—Nohara. Using that house name also helped avoid accidentally being lumped in with other families. As far as he recalled, there weren't any Japanese Warring States families called "Nohara"—using "uncultivated plain" as a house name—so he figured it'd help him avoid a lot of trouble.
As for Saburo, that was because, counting his uncle's older brothers and sisters, he was the third son, hence "Saburo" as the formal name;
As for "Ieto"... well, after several thousand miles and four or five hundred years, wouldn't home seem far indeed?
So: adapt to local customs, safety first. During his time in the Japanese Middle Ages, he planned to go by this name.