Something very intresting and may help...

[lildude]

May help you understand the word Kobayashi. This word also has many occurences in shintoism, japan's pre world war 2 national religion, which no longer takes that title due to drastic modernization, but is still somewhat practiced today among some japanese

Kobayashi (小林 "small forest") is the 9th most common Japanese surname.
小- Sukoshi, which means small, or little.
林- Which is also a derivative of KI which means tree. When you place 2 kanjis of Tree(ki) together, you create the kanji for Forest.
The names of kanji when put together very often change in pronounciation.