🚀 go-pugleaf

In dealing with Japanese personal and place names the most
important thing to resolve is whether one wants to look
up what the possible reading(s) is/are or whether one wants
to identify the particular reading of a particular person
or place.  The works cited previously on this list will
be very helpful for the first task, primarily as a guide for
educated guessing.  For the second, however,
you would need more extensive reference sources.
In the case of people's names:  first determine who the
person is by occupation or time period, etc. and then
look in specific reference books.  For example, if the person
is a contemporary and is a professor at a Japanese university
then you can look in Kenkyusha Kenkyu Kadai Soran.  Or, if
the person is an author of a book you can check the NIhon Shoseki
Somokuroku  or    Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan Tenkyoroku   or
Chosakuken Daicho.

Since none of these sources is cheap, one method many people
use is to use O'Neill or other one volume sources to make
guesses and later go to a library to verify the readings.

Maureen Donovan
Japanese Studies Librarian
Ohio State University Libraries