To provide a manufacturing method with which a surface acoustic wave element can be reduced in height at a good yield and further, characteristics are also stabilized.

A manufacturing method of a surface acoustic wave element is characterized in that a piezoelectric mono-crystal wafer having rear-side roughness Ra of 0.15 m or preferably 0.01 m is prepared, an electrode pattern is formed on the wafer, and the wafer is made into chip and a rear side thereof is ground, so that the rear side can be made coarser than the rear-side roughness while keeping desired thickness.