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Knowing what the Kanji mean is not entirely helpful. In names such as these the Kanji are similar to Anglo-Norse "kennings", that is riddles that mean something other than the literal meaning. They have the added twist in that they are not said as they are written. As adaptations of Chinese ideographs (Kanji are "Han" [Chinese] writing) they represent ideas, not words. 水戸瀬 reads literally "water-house-shallow" or "Mizu to se". 三戸瀬 reads "three-house-shallow" or "San to se", also read "San'nohe se" (San'nohe is another town) or "San ko se" (literally "three households shallow"). You might guess that "se" in this context should be read literally (in Japanese it is also the term for a ford across a river or stream), and that both names are location surnames. "戸" originally represented "ko" household, before being used for "to"—"house" or "door". Beyond that it gets difficult. You might assume that "Mizu to" was reduced to 'Mito", but it's just as likely that "Mizu to" is just a Kanji approximation of the sound of "Mito", so "waterhouse" or "waterdoor" may be a red herring as much as it might refer to a local feature (a water mill, a house by the water, something locally referred to as a water house?) identifying a particular locality. "San to", or "three house/door", may seem to be a riddle describing the word or name "Mito", much as the word or name "Sapphire" can be written with the Kanji for "blue ball", but wait, it's not that simple. "Mitose" also means "three year(s old" (with "tose" for "toshi"—harvest, age, old), so it's only natural to use the Kanji for "three", normally read "san" when writing "Mitose". Hold on now, there's another level to this explanation. 未 "not yet", 魅 "attractive, fascinating, charming" are also said "mi", written ミ in katakana, so Mitose can also mean "not yet old" i.e. "young", or "beautiful age", and is sometimes (usually?) written with those Kanji plus the Kanji for "toshi" 歳 (魅歳 "Mitose" appears most commonly as a feminine first name). It can also be written with another kanji for beauty 美 (otherwise rendered "bi"), and the Kanji 弥 (end, stop), probably as a homophone of 美.