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Nowadays, the "sen" names have lost their meanings, because women bear them too.
Nowadays, the "sen" names have lost their meanings, because women bear them too.



==Ecuador==

#[[Maruri]]





Revision as of 01:23, 1 September 2007

Family names can be unique or come in large numbers. In different countries some names are more common than others. This is a listing of common surnames (alphabetical by country names):

The following table only covers the capital Buenos Aires, and is only an approximate ranking. It is based on the number of telephone connections per surname in the white pages of the city.

Name
1 Fernández
2 Rodríguez
3 González
4 García
5 López
6 Martínez
7 Pérez
8 Álvarez
9 Gómez
10 Sanchez
Date

2003

Source

Extract of Buenos Aires telephone dictionary by Juan F. Codagnone

Name Number of people
1 Smith 114,997
2 Jones 56,698
3 Williams 55,555
4 Brown 54,896
5 Wilson 46,961
6 Taylor 45,328
7 Johnson 33,435
8 White 31,099
9 Martin 31,058
10 Anderson 30,910
11 Thompson 29,931
12 Nguyen[1] 29,798
13 Thomas 27,276
14 Walker 26,688
15 Harris 26,025
16 Lee 25,612
17 Ryan 25,526
18 Robinson 25,168
19 Kelly 25,014
20 King 24,870

Source

  • IP Australia. "Search for Australian Surnames". Government of Australia. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
Name Number of people
1 Peeters 33,113
2 Janssens 30,996
3 Maes 25,567
4 Jacobs 20,096
5 Mertens 18,699
6 Willems 18,540
7 Claes 16,757
8 Goossens 16,075
9 Wouters 15,834
10 De Smet 14,251

For the three Regions in Belgium, the most common surnames are:

Flemish region Walloon region Brussels-Capital region
1 Peeters Dubois Janssens
2 Janssens Lambert Peeters
3 Maes Martin Dubois
4 Jacobs Dupont Jacobs
5 Willems Dumont Mertens
Date

January 1, 2001

Source

Statistics Belgium, Demographic Statistics. [1]

Brazil

  1. Silva
  2. Santos
  3. Oliveira
  4. Souza/Sousa
  5. Pereira
  6. Costa
  7. Carvalho
  8. Almeida
  9. Ferreira
  10. Ribeiro
  11. Rodrigues
  12. Gomes
  13. Lima
  14. Martins
  15. Rocha
  16. Alves
  17. Araújo
  18. Pinto
  19. Barbosa
  20. Castro
  21. Fernandes
  22. Melo
  23. Azevedo
  24. Barros
  25. Cardoso
  26. Correia
  27. Cunha
  28. Dias

Source: [2]

Canada

English Canada

  1. Johnson
  2. Smith
  3. Martin
  4. Morris
  5. Hill
  6. Hall
  7. Jackson

Source: [3]

Quebec

The 50 most popular surnames in Quebec

  1. Tremblay (1.13%)
  2. Gagnon (0.82%)
  3. Roy (0.77%)
  4. Côté (0.74%)
  5. Bouchard (0.56%)
  6. Gauthier (0.55%)
  7. Morin (0.51%)
  8. Lavoie (0.49%)
  9. Fortin (0.47%)
  10. Gagné (0.47%)
  11. Pelletier (0.45%)
  12. Bélanger (0.44%)
  13. Bergeron (0.41%)
  14. Lévesque (0.41%)
  15. Simard (0.38%)
  16. Girard (0.37%)
  17. Leblanc (0.37%)
  18. Boucher (0.35%)
  19. Ouellet (0.34%)
  20. Caron (0.32%)
  21. Beaulieu (0.31%)
  22. Poirier (0.31%)
  23. Dubé (0.31%)
  24. Cloutier (0.31%)
  25. Fournier (0.30%)
  26. Lapointe (0.30%)
  27. Lefebvre (0.29%)
  28. Poulin (0.28%)
  29. Nadeau (0.28%)
  30. Martin (0.27%)
  31. St-Pierre (0.27%)
  32. Martel (0.26%)
  33. Grenier (0.26%)
  34. Landry (0.26%)
  35. Lessard (0.26%)
  36. Leclerc (0.25%)
  37. Bédard (0.25%)
  38. Bernier (0.24%)
  39. Couture (0.24%)
  40. Richard (0.23%)
  41. Michaud (0.23%)
  42. Desjardins (0.23%)
  43. Hébert (0.22%)
  44. Blais (0.22%)
  45. Turcotte (0.22%)
  46. Savard (0.22%)
  47. Lachance (0.22%)
  48. Parent (0.22%)
  49. Demers (0.21%)
  50. Gosselin (0.21%)

Percentage of total population: 17.82%

Sources: Institut de la statistique du Québec, Quelques Statistiques sur les Noms de Famille and Les 1 000 premiers noms de famille selon le rang, Québec

  1. Contreras
  2. Fernández
  3. González
  4. Rojas
  5. Pérez
  6. Álvarez
  7. Muñoz
  8. Valdés
See also: List of common Chinese surnames

According to the survey conducted by Chinese Academy of Sciences released in January 2006, the top twenty surnames in China are listed as follows.

  1. (李)
  2. (王) Wáng
  3. (張) Zhāng
  4. (劉) Liú
  5. (陳) Chén
  6. (楊) Yáng
  7. (黃) Huáng
  8. (趙) Zhào
  9. (周) Zhōu
  10. (吳)
  11. (徐)
  12. (孫) Sūn
  13. (朱) Zhū
  14. (馬)
  15. (胡)
  16. (郭) Guō
  17. (林) Lín
  18. (何)
  19. (高) Gāo
  20. (梁) Liáng
  1. Novák (70 504)
  2. Svoboda (52 088)
  3. Novotný (49 962)
  4. Dvořák (46 099)
  5. Černý (36 743)
  6. Procházka (33 274)
  7. Kučera (31 286)
  8. Veselý (26 481)
  9. Horák (25 174)
  10. Němec (22 795)
  11. Marek (22 548)
  12. Pokorný (22 203)
  13. Pospíšil (22 189)
  14. Hájek (21 276)
  15. Jelínek (20 733)
  16. Král (20 510)
  17. Růžička (19 846)
  18. Beneš (19 600)
  19. Fiala (19 121)
  20. Sedláček (18 484)

Feminized names included (m. Novák - f. Nováková).
Source: Ministry of Interior (as of 2002).

Most popular Danish family names (as of 2004) [4]

  1. Jensen 303,089
  2. Nielsen 296,850
  3. Hansen 248,968
  4. Pedersen 186,913
  5. Andersen 172,894
  6. Christensen 133,033
  7. Larsen 129,662
  8. Sørensen 124,175
  9. Rasmussen 104,130
  10. Jørgensen 98,354
  11. Petersen 92,189
  12. Madsen 70,176
  13. Kristensen 65,074
  14. Olsen 54,044
  15. Thomsen 40,514
  16. Christiansen 40,224
  17. Poulsen 34,203
  18. Johansen 33,120
  19. Knudsen 31,977
  20. Mortensen 31,252

The most popular Danish family names all end with "sen", meaning "son". That means, that for example "Jensen" is "son of Jens", "Poulsen" is "son of Poul". An example: if Hans Petersen's father was Peter Sørensen, Hans' father's name was Peter, and his grandfather's Søren. His son would then be (first name) Hansen. This method of naming children was widely used up to the middle of the 19th century. Sometimes it was also common to give to girls names such as "Jensdatter" or "Poulsdatter", meaning daughter of Jens, or daughter of Poul. These names are now seldom seen in Denmark, but still widely known and used in Iceland (where the ending is -dóttir).

Nowadays, the "sen" names have lost their meanings, because women bear them too.


Ecuador

  1. Maruri


Name Number of people
1 Tamm 5,180
2 Saar 4,306
3 Mägi 3,565
4 Sepp 3,550
5 Ivanov
6 Kask
7 Ivanova
8 Kukk
9 Rebane
10 Ilves
Date

February 1, 2005

Source

Ministry of Internal Affairs Estonia, press release "Tamm, Saar, Mägi and Sepp are the most common family names in Estonia" 09.02.2005 [5]

Source: Population Register Centre, 20 June 2005. Percentages are based on the population of Finland on 21 June 2005.

  1. Virtanen - 24,204 (0.461%)
  2. Korhonen - 23,721 (0.452%)
  3. Nieminen - 21,841 (0.416%)
  4. Mäkinen - 21,699 (0.414%)
  5. Mäkelä - 19,674 (0.375%)
  6. Hämäläinen - 19,518 (0.372%)
  7. Laine - 18,908 (0.360%)
  8. Koskinen - 18,058 (0.344%)
  9. Heikkinen - 17,939 (0.342%)
  10. Järvinen - 17,381 (0.331%)

Most of the names of this list refer to the living place of the first holder of the name. Virta and Koski refer the original holder has located nearby a river. Mäki = hill, Järvi = lake, Niemi = cape, Laine = small wave. Hämäläinen means an inhabitant of Häme (Tavastia county). Heikki is a common man's first name.

Source (2004) : [6]

  1. Martin - 235,846 (0.393%) - From Saint Martin, patron saint of France (from Martius, Latin for warrior)
  2. Bernard - 105,132 (0.175%) - From Saint Bernard, from Germanic for bold as a bear
  3. Dubois - 95,998 (0.159%) - "From the wood"
  4. Thomas - 95,387 (0.158%) - From Saint Thomas (Jesus' Disciple), from Aramaic for twin
  5. Robert - 91,393 (0.152%) - From Germanic for bright fame
  6. Richard - 90,689 (0.151§) - "Rich/powerful"
  7. Petit - 88,318 (0.147%) - "Small" (size)
  8. Durand - 84,252 (0.140%) - From Durandus (Latin for strong, lasting)
  9. Leroy - 78,868 (0.131%) - "The King/The winner"
  10. Moreau - 78,177 (0.130) - Dark complexion (like Maures)
  11. Simon - 76,655 (0.127%) - From Saint Simon, from Hebrew for Yehova heard
  12. Laurent - 75,307 (0.125%) - From Saint Laurent, from Latin laurens, Laurel-crowned
  13. Lefebvre - 74,564 (0.124%) - "The smith"
  14. Michel - 74,318 (0.123%) - From Saint Michel, from Hebrew for Who is like God
  15. Garcia - 68,720 (0.114%) - Spanish surname
  16. David - 61,762 (0.103%) - From King David, from Hebrew for Beloved
  17. Bertrand - 59,817 (0.100%) From Germanic for bright and vigorous
  18. Roux - 59,440 (0.099%) - "Red-haired"
  19. Vincent - 57,351 (0.096%) - From Saint Vincent, from Latin vicens, winner
  20. Fournier - 57,047 (0.095%) - "Baker"
  21. Morel - 56,760 (0.095%) - Dark complexion (like Maures)
  22. Girard - 55,642 (0.093%) - From Germanic for bold as a spear
  23. André - 55,228 (0.092%) - From Saint André, from Greek for manly
  24. Lefèvre - 53670 (0.089%) - "The smith"
  25. Mercier - 53622 (0.089%) - "Trader/Shopkeeper"

Source: 2007 [7]

Name Number of people
1 Beridze 19,765
2 Mammadov 19,294
3 Kapanadze 13,294
4 Gelashvili 13,505
5 Aliyev 13,118
data from 1995
  1. Müller (0.95%) (Miller)
  2. Schmidt (0.69%) (Smith, blacksmith)
  3. Schneider (0.40%) (Taylor)
  4. Fischer (0.35%) (Fisher)
  5. Meyer (0.33%) (from Latin "major", the bigger one, referring to the name-giver's status, meaning is Major, police officer, sheriff; also: Meier, 0.15%; Maier, 0.13%; Mayer, 0.13%)
  6. Weber (0.30%) (Weaver)
  7. Schulz (0.27%) (regionally for mayor)
  8. Wagner (0.27%) (Wainwright, Wright; builder of wagons and carriages)
  9. Becker (0.27%) (Baker)
  10. Hoffmann (0.26%) (owning a farm)
  11. Huber (0.18%) (owning a farm of a certain size called Hube)
  12. Klein (Small, Short)

Most of the names of this list refer to the occupation of the first holder of the name.

  1. Nagy (239310; big)
  2. Kovács (221687; smith, cf. Schmidt)
  3. Tóth (216758; Slovak/Slav)
  4. Szabó (212586; tailor, cf. Schneider, Couturier)
  5. Horváth (Horvát) (201059; Croatian)
  6. Varga (139764; shoemaker, cf. Schumacher, person working with leather)
  7. Kiss (Kis) (134305; small, cf. Klein, Lepetit)
  8. Molnár (109178; miller, cf. Müller)
  9. Németh (Német) (93990; German, cf. Deutsch, Lallemand)
  10. Farkas (83346; <given name, meaning "wolf">, cf. Wolf)
  11. Balogh (80113; left-handed, unskillful)
  12. Papp (53847; priest)
  13. Takács (53402; weaver, cloth-maker, cf. Weber)
  14. Juhász (52495; shepherd, cf. Schäfer)
  15. Lakatos (45051; locksmith)
  16. Mészáros (41061; butcher, cf. Fleischer, Boucher)
  17. Simon (38481; <given name>)
  18. Oláh (38311; Vlach, Romanian)
  19. Fekete (35179; black, cf. Schwarz, Lenoir)
  20. Rácz (35109; Serbian)
  21. Szilágyi (31986; from Szilágy county)
  22. Török (27206; Turkish)
  23. Fehér (26804; white, cf. Weiss, Leblanc)
  24. Gál (Gaál) (25924; <given name>)
  25. Balázs (25804; <given name>)
  26. Kis (24613; see Kiss)
  27. Szűcs (24416; leather taylor)
  28. Pintér (23951)
  29. Kocsis (23911; coachman)
  30. Fodor (23371)

Notes:

  • The above is official data of the Central Personal Data Processing Office at Hungary's Ministry of Interior in 2006 [8].
  • Beside the names, the number of their owners and their meaning is given. Note that Hungarian surnames often show archaic spelling and occasionally employ obsolete words, especially for nationalities like tót or rác.
  • Nationalities occur frequently as surnames, the pre-1920 Hungary being a multi-ethnic country. Because of this, there are also a lot of surnames of foreign origin. Some examples: Weiss, Schwarz, Schäffer (German), Mravik, Novák, Zsilinszky (Slovak), Csernicskó (East Slavonic), Marosán, Szelezsán, Torgyán (Romanian), Nemcsik, Bencsics, Popovics, Petrovics (South Slavonic), Dobrev (Bulgarian), Kohn (Hebrew/Yiddish).


  1. Agrawal
  2. Ansari
  3. Agarwal
  4. Bannerji
  5. Bhonsale
  6. Bhat
  7. Choudhary
  8. Deshpande
  9. Deshmukh
  10. Gandhi
  11. Goel
  12. Jadhav
  13. Joshi
  14. Khan
  15. Kulkarni
  16. Patel
  17. Patil
  18. Pawar
  19. Shinde
  20. Singh
  21. Soni
  22. Yadav
  23. Shaikh

Source: The Top 500 British Surnames, The Observer, 15th April 2007

  1. Murphy
  2. Kelly
  3. O'Sullivan
  4. Walsh
  5. Smith
  6. O'Brien
  7. Byrne
  8. Ryan
  9. O'Connor
  10. O'Neill
  11. O'Reilly
  12. Doyle
  13. McCarthy
  14. Gallagher
  15. O'Doherty
  16. Kennedy
  17. Lynch
  18. Murray
  19. Quinn
  20. Moore
  21. Hogan

Names starting with O' and Mac/Mc were originally patronymic.

This is a list of the most common Jewish surnames in Israel:

Name Percentage of population
1 Cohen (כהן) 2.52%
2 Levi (לוי) (sometimes spelled Levy) 1.48%
3 Mizrachi (מזרחי) 0.47%
4 Peretz (פרץ) 0.42%
5 Biton (ביטון) 0.40%

These 5 are followed by:

6. Dahan
7. Avraham
8. Friedman
9. Azulai
10. Malcah
11. Katz
12. David
13. Gabai
14. Amar
15. Ochion
16. Chadad (Hadad)
17. Yosef
18. Ben-David
19. Adrei
20. Levin
21. Moshe
22. Ashkenazi
23. Tal
24. Segel
25. Chazan
26. Shapira
27. Yitzchak
28. Klein
29. Golan
30. Chen

Date

February 23, 2004

Source

http://www.britam.org/jerusalem/jerusalem271to300.html, quoting from Yediot Achronot

  1. Rossi
  2. Russo
  3. Ferrari
  4. Esposito
  5. Bianchi
  6. Romano
  7. Colombo
  8. Ricci
  9. Marino
  10. Greco
  11. Bruno
  12. Gallo
  13. Conti
  14. De Luca
  15. Costa
  16. Giordano
  17. Mancini
  18. Rizzo
  19. Lombardi
  20. Moretti
Date

unknown

Source

Gens

The top 10 surnames cover about 1% of the population.

The most common names from Tokyo northwards are Sato and Suzuki; the most common names from Kyoto and Osaka southwards are Yamamoto and Tanaka.

The most common names in Tokyo are:

  1. (佐藤) Satō
  2. (鈴木) Suzuki
  3. (高橋) Takahashi
  4. (田中) Tanaka
  5. (渡辺) Watanabe
  6. (伊藤) Itō
  7. (山本) Yamamoto
  8. (中村) Nakamura
  9. (小林) Kobayashi
  10. (斎藤) Saitō
  11. (加藤) Katō
  12. (吉田) Yoshida
  13. (山田) Yamada
  14. (佐々木) Sasaki
  15. (山口) Yamaguchi
  16. (松本) Matsumoto
  17. (井上) Inoue
  18. (木村) Kimura
  19. (林) Hayashi
  20. (清水) Shimizu
  21. (青木) Aoki

The top 10 surnames cover 8.35% of the population.

  1. 김 (金; Kim, Gim)
  2. 이 (李; Lee, Yi, I)
  3. 박 (朴; Park, Pak, Bak)
  4. 최 (崔; Choi, Choe)
  5. 정 (鄭; Jung, Chung, Jeong)
  6. 강 (姜; Kang, Gang)
  7. 조 (趙; Cho, Jo)
  8. 윤 (尹; Yoon, Yun)
  9. 장 (張; Jang, Chang)
  10. 임 (林; Lim, Im)
  11. 신 (申; Shin, Sin)
  12. 한 (韓; Han)
  13. 서 (徐; Suh, Seo)
  14. 권 (權; Kwon, Gwon)
  15. 손 (孫; Sohn, Son)
  16. 황 (黃; Hwang, Whang)
  17. 송 (宋; Song)
  18. 안 (安; Ahn, An)
  19. 유 (柳; Yoo, Yu)
  20. 홍 (洪; Hong)

Source: National Statistical Office, Republic of Korea

Korean surnames have a variety of ways of being romanized.

  1. Bērziņš (Berzinsh)
  2. Kalniņš (Kalninsh)
  3. Ozoliņš (Ozolinsh)
  4. Jansons (Jansons)
  5. Ozols (Ozols)
  6. Liepiņš (Liepinsh)
  7. Krūmiņš (Kruminsh)
  8. Balodis (Balodis)
  9. Eglītis (Eglitis)
  10. Zariņš (Zarinsh)
  11. Pētersons (Petersons)
  12. Vītols (Vitols)
  13. Kļaviņš (Klavinsh)
  14. Kārkliņš (Karklinsh)
  15. Vanags (Vanags)

First three literally translated - the diminutive forms of birch, hill and oak. Source - the Latvian Institute

Most popular Lithuanian surnames 2007

# For men For women
1 Kazlauskas Kazlauskienė
2 Stankevičius Jankauskienė
3 Jankauskas Petrauskienė
4 Petrauskas Stankevičienė
5 Vasiliauskas Paulauskienė
6 Žukauskas Vasiliauskienė
7 Paulauskas Žukauskienė
8 Urbonas Urbonienė

Note: The Lithuanian language has different endings for surnames for men and women. The ending of a woman's surname indicates whether she is married or not. Last names of married women end in -ienė while those of unmarried girls end in -ytė, -iūtė, -utė, -aitė.

Source: The Interesting Statistics, Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (Statistics Lithuania), 2005.

Name Number of people % Etymology
1 Borg 13,169 3.3 Sicilian city of Burgi; or from Sant'Ambrogio
2 Camilleri 12,643 3.1 Son of Camillus; or 'cammelo' Italian for camel(animal)
3 Vella 11,785 2.9 'bella' Italian for beautiful; or 'vela' Italian sails
4 Farrugia 11,549 2.9 'farrug' Arabic for turkey (animal)
5 Zammit 9,424 2.3 Maybe from a Hebrew word meaning peaceful
Date

November 27, 2005

Source

"Census 2005: A focus on surnames in Malta", National Statistics Office Malta [9]

Source of etymologies

http://www.searchmalta.com/surnames

An older source gives a longer list of surnames. These are:

Name Number of people Etymology
6 Galea 7,442 ? The Latin word for helmet
7 Micallef 7,166 the name Mikali (Michael) or from 'mħallef', the Maltese word for judge (profession)
8 Grech 6,740 'Graecus' Latin for Greek
9 Attard 6,453 'attar' Arabic for pharmacist/physician
10 Spiteri 6,391 'Hospitalieri', used for abandoned children (near the Knights' Hospital), other interpretations being children of the Hospitalieri themselves
11 Cassar 5,985 Maybe castle keeper (Latin origin) or barber (Arabic origin)
12 Azzopardi 5,905 'A Safardi', meaning 'A sephardic Jew - a Jew coming from Spain'

However, the exact meaning of the word Safardi is disputed: e.g. in semitic languages, the word 'safar' means travel so Safardim could also mean Jews who travelled, the biblical record predating the existence of Jews in Spain considerably

13 Mifsud 5,707 Jewish surname
14 Caruana 5,577 Kairouan in Tunisia, in turn is derived from the Persian word Kârawân [10]
15 Muscat 5,288 Muscat in Oman or Muscat grape
16 Agius 4,944 Maybe Greek Holy or Maltese old man or referring to a pilgrim to Mecca
17 Schembri 4,226 Greek surname
18 Abela 4,117
19 Fenech 4,111 Maybe 'fenek' Maltese for rabbit or 'Fenici' meaning Phoenicians
20 Pace 4,017 'pace' Italian for peace
Date

unknown

Source

http://www.maltavista.ru/info/surnames, which refers to "Surnames in Malta: what can they tell us?" by Prof. Joseph M. Brincat

Source of etymologies

http://www.searchmalta.com/surnames

Martinez Gonzalez Rodriguez Cruz

  1. Hernández (8.50%)
  2. García (8.14%)
  3. Martínez (7.14%)
  4. González (7.09%)
  5. López (7.06%)

Source: GARCÍA, Miriam Para regios...los Martínez Periódico El Norte 18 de marzo de 2003.

The most recent complete count of surnames in the Netherlands is based on the 1947 census. Although this data is now dated, the relative positions of these surnames will probably not have changed much.

Name Number of people
1 De Jong 55,256
2 De Vries 49,298
3 Jansen 49,213
4 Van den Berg, Van der Berg, Van de Berg 37,678
5 Bakker 37,483
6 Van Dijk 36,578
7 Visser 34,721
8 Janssen 32,824
9 Smit 29,783
10 Meijer, Meyer 28,256
Date

May 31, 1947

Source

Nederlands Repertorium van Familienamen, Meertens-Instituut, 1963-1988. Data can be viewed in the Database of Surnames in the Netherlands

  1. Hansen (meaning son of Hans (Hans' son)) (1.31%)
  2. Olsen (1.21%)
  3. Johansen (1.21%)
  4. Larsen (0.90%)
  5. Andersen (0.88%)
  6. Nilsen (0.83%)
  7. Pedersen (0.82%)
  8. Kristiansen (0.55%)
  9. Jensen (0.54%)
  10. Karlsen (0.50%)
  11. Johnsen (0.48%)
  12. Pettersen (0.47%)
  13. Eriksen (0.44%)
  14. Berg (meaning hill or mount) (0.41%)
  15. Haugen (meaning [the] hill) (0.32%)
  16. Hagen (meaning garden [usually derived from names of homesteads)] (0.32%)
  17. Johannessen (0.31%)
  18. Andreassen (0.28%)
  19. Jacobsen (0.27%)
  20. Halvorsen (0.27%)

Names ending in sen are originally patronymic.
Source: Statistics Norway: Name statistics

  1. Khan
  2. Ahmed
  3. Syed
  4. Siddiqui
  5. Quraishi
  6. Bukhari
  7. Hashmi
  8. Qadri
  9. Yousufzai

See also: Polish surnames

  1. Nowak (203,506; from nowy "newman")
  2. Kowalski (139,719; from kowal "smith")
  3. Wiśniewski (109,855; from wiśnia "cherry")
  4. Wójcik (99,509; from wójt, a noun describing chief officer of a group of a villages)
  5. Kowalczyk (97,796, from kowalek "smithy")
  6. Kamiński (94,499; from kamień "stone")
  7. Lewandowski (92,449; from lewantyna "Levantine")
  8. Zieliński (91,043; from zielony "green")
  9. Szymański (89,091; from Szymon, equivalent to Simon)
  10. Woźniak (88,039; from wóz, "car")
  11. Dąbrowski (86,132; from dąb "oak tree")
  12. Kozłowski (75,962; from kozioł "goat")
  13. Jankowski (68,514; from Janek, equivalent to John)
  14. Mazur (66,773; from Mazury, the region in Poland)
  15. Wojciechowski (66,361; from the name Wojciech, equivalent to Adalbert)
  16. Kwiatkowski (66,017; from kwiat "flower")
  17. Krawczyk (64,048; from diminutive of "tailor")
  18. Kaczmarek (61,816; from karczma "inn")
  19. Piotrowski (61,380; from Piotr, equivalent to Peter)
  20. Bagiński (60,492; from baginiak "master")
  21. Grabowski (58,393; from grab "hornbeam")

It is important to remember that Polish names which end with -ski or -cki have a male and a female form - Kamiński / Kamińska, Wielicki / Wielicka, etc. This needs to be considered when taking a count based on, for instance, scanning a telephone book.

Source: Zawadzki, Jarosław Maciej (2002). 1000 najpopularniejszych nazwisk w Polsce (1000 of the most popular names in Poland). Świat Książki. ISBN 83-7311-265-0. Template:Pl icon

Per Boris Unbegaun of Oxford University:

  1. Иванов (Ivanov) - "of John"
  2. Васильев (Vasilyev) - "of Basil"
  3. Петров (Petrov) - "of Peter"
  4. Смирнов (Smirnov) - "of a quiet man"
  5. Михайлов (Mikhailov) - "of Michael"
  6. Федоров (Fyodorov) - "of Theodore"
  7. Соколов (Sokolov) - "of a falcon"
  8. Яковлев (Yakovlev) - "of Jacob"
  9. Попов (Popov) - "of an Orthodox priest (known as a "pope")"
  10. Андреев (Andreyev) - "of Andrew"
  11. Сидоров (Sidorov) - "of Sidor"
  12. Егоров (Egorov) - "of Egor"

Russian surnames may originally denote "son of" or "serf of". Women's surnames have an "-a" suffix, denoting possession. Thus, for example, "Ivanova" means "belonging to John" or "John's". The case declensions of women's surnames illustrate this sense of possession even more clearly.

The Russian equivalent of "Smith, Jones, and Brown" (that is, the generic most popular surnames) is Иванов, Петров, Сидоров, or "Johnson, Peterson, and Sidorson". The last of these, Sidorov - "of Sidor" is actually not a very common surname at all, while Sidor as a given name is virtually unknown. According to latest studies (2006), the most common Russian surnames are actually Кузнецов (Kuznetsov) (of a smith), Ivanov and Petrov.

See also: List of common Chinese surnames

Popular Chinese surnames - based on a paper published by Statistics Singapore, 2000

  1. Tan 陈 (陳)
  2. Lim
  3. Lee
  4. Ng
  5. Ong
  6. Wong
  7. Goh
  8. Chua
  9. Chan 陈 (陳)
  10. Koh 许 (許)
  11. Teo 张 (張)
  12. Ang
  13. Yeo 杨 (楊)
  14. Tay 郑 (鄭)
  15. Ho
  16. Low 刘 (劉)
  17. Toh
  18. Sim
  19. Chong 张 (張)
  20. Chia 谢(謝)

Some of the most common surnames in Serbia, in no particular order.

  1. Petrović
  2. Jovanović
  3. Marković
  4. Nikolić
  5. Đorđević
  6. Janković
  7. Ilić
Source: http://www.stat.si/imena_pr_vsa.asp
  1. Novak 11450
  2. Horvat 10258
  3. Krajnc 5839
  4. Kovačič 5699
  5. Zupančič 5187
  6. Kovač 4836
  7. Potočnik 4767
  8. Mlakar 4132
  9. Vidmar 4004
  10. Golob 3957
Source: [11] - Data from December 1999.
  1. García - 1,378,000 people (3.48%) (Of Pre-Roman origin, either Iberian or Basque. Garcia was a very common first name in early medieval Spain. It is a surname of patronymic origin, like most of the -ez ending Spanish surnames.)
  2. Fernández - 851,000 (2.15%) (Son of Fernando, from Germanic Fredenand or Fridnand. Most of the common Spanish surnames originating from Germanic first names were introduced in Spain during centuries V-VII by the Visigoths, so almost all of them are from the Visigoth tradition)
  3. González - 839,000 (2.12%) (Son of Gonzalo, from the latinised form Gundisalvus, of Germanic origin)
  4. Rodríguez - 804,000 (2.03%) (Son of Rodrigo, from Germanic Roderic)
  5. López - 796,000 (2.01%) (Son of Lope, from Latin Lupus, meaning wolf)
  6. Martínez - 788,000 (1.97%) (Son of Martin, also from Latin, derived from Martis, genitive form of Mars)
  7. Sánchez - 725,000 (1.83%) (Son of Sancho, from Latin Sanctius)
  8. Pérez - 709,000 (1.79%) (Son of Pedro, from Latin Petrus)
  9. Martín - 459,000 (1.16%) (Martin)
  10. Gómez - 440,000 (1.11%) (Son of Gome, Gomo or Gomaro, also of Germanic origin)
  11. Ruiz - 321,000 (0.81%) (Son of Rui, variation or short for Rodrigo)
  12. Hernández - 305,000 (0.77%) (Son of Hernando, variation of Fernando)
  13. Jiménez - 293,000 (0.74%) (Son of Jimeno, from Xemeno or Ximeno, of unknown origin)
  14. Díaz - 293,000 (0.74%) (Son of Diago or Diego, ultimately from Greek Didachos)
  15. Álvarez - 273,000 (0.69%) (Son of Alvaro, from Alvar, also of Germanic origin)
  16. Moreno - 261,000 (0.66%) (Brown-haired, tanned, brunet)
  17. Muñoz - 241,000 (0.61%) (Son of Munio, of Pre-Roman origin)
  18. Alonso - 206,000 (0.52%) (Son of Alonso, variation of Alfonso, from Germanic Adalfuns)
  19. Gutiérrez - 170,000 (0.43%) (Son of Gutier or Gutierre, from Germanic Wutier)
  20. Romero - 170,000 (0.43%) (walker, pilgrim)
  21. Navarro - 158,400 (0.40%) (Navarrese, from Navarra; of Toponymic origin)
  22. Torres - 134,600 (0.34%) (Towers; also toponymic)
  23. Domínguez - 134,600 (0.34%) (Son of Domingo, from Latin Domenicus, ultimately from Dominus, meaning lord, master)
  24. Gil - 134,600 (0.34%) (From older form Egidio; also patronymic)
  25. Vázquez - 130,000 (0.33%) (Son of Vasco or Velasco, of Pre-Roman origin, either Iberian or Basque)
  26. Serrano - 122,700 (0.31%) (Mountain Dweller)
  27. Ramos - 118,000 (0.30%) (Branches; of patronymic origin, meaning 'born in or near the Christian festivity of Branch Sunday, or Palm Sunday')
  28. Blanco - 118,000 (0.30%) (White)
  29. Sanz - 106,900 (0.27%) (Variation of Sanchez)
  30. Castro - 102,900 (0.26%) (Castle, hamlet, castro)
  31. Suárez - 102,900 (0.26%) (Son of Suero or Suaro, of unknown origin)
  32. Ortega - 99,000 (0.25%) (From Ortiga or Hortiga, a type of common plant from the nettle family; of toponymic origin)
  33. Rubio - 99,000 (0.25%) (Blond, fair-haired; ultimately from Latin Rubeus, meaning ruddy, reddish)
  34. Molina - 99,000 (0.25%) (Mill, place with mills; toponymic)
  35. Delgado - 95,000 (0.24%) (Thin man)
  36. Ramírez - 95,000 (0.24%) (Son of Ramiro, from Germanic Radamir or Radmir)
  37. Morales - 95,000 (0.24%) (Place with abundant blackberry plants; of toponymic origin)
  38. Ortiz - 87,120 (0.22%) (Son of Ortún; ultimately from Latin Fortunius, meaning fortunate one)
  39. Marín - 83,160 (0.21%) (From Latin Marinus, meaning seaman, sailor)
  40. Iglesias - 83,160 (0.21%) (Churches; toponymic origin)

Family names ending in -ez are typically patronymic

The top 10 surnames cover about 20% of population.

official statistics

The most common names in Sweden are originally patronymic, which means that the son of e.g. Karl received the surname Karlsson (Karl's son). The daughter received the name Karlsdotter (Karl's daughter). Since the 19th century these names are inherited exactly as in e.g. USA or the United Kingdom and women also receive "son-names". Compare this with the "mac-names" in Scotland. Even though these "son-names" are the most common names in Sweden, a majority of the Swedes have other family names consisting of two random items from nature, for example Lindberg (linden/lime mountain), Bergkvist (mountain twig), Alström/Ahlström (alder stream). A very good example of the randomness of these nature-names is the surname Dalberg, meaning literally, "valley mountain". Other names like Sjöman (Seaman) and Nyman (Newman) contain professions and adjectives. Many families also have military-oriented names, as it was popular near the end of the 16th century to adopt soldier names such as Skarpsvärd (sharp sword) Sköld (shield) and Stolt (proud). Because of the greater diversity of these names each specific name is less common than most "son-names". Given the large quantity of citizens of foreign heritage it is a matter of time before their surnames will be present high up in the official statistics, especially when grouped together instead of listed as separate surnames because of slightly different spelling or omitted umlauts etc. Persons with ancestors of noble origin in Sweden often, but not always, have surnames referring to their coat of arms or non-Swedish names.

The top 10 surnames cover about 20% of the population.

See also: Taiwanese name

Popular Taiwanese surnames - based on Ministry of the Interior also see Common Chinese Names [12]

  1. Chen 陳 (11.06%)
  2. Lin 林 (8.28%)
  3. Huang, Hwang 黃 (6.01%)
  4. Chang, Jang 張 (5.26%)
  5. Li, Lee 李 (5.11%)
  6. Wang 王 (4.12%)
  7. Wu, Woo 吳 (4.04%)
  8. Liu, Liou 劉 (3.17%)
  9. Tsai, Chai, Tsay 蔡 (2.91%)
  10. Yang 楊 (2.66%)

Turkey

  • 1.Yılmaz
  • 2.Kaya
  • 3.Demir
  • 4.Şahin
  • 5.Çelik

Source: Turkish Directorate-General of Population and Citizenships:

England, Wales and Isle of Man

The following list is for England, Wales, and the Isle of Man, and is based on a survey of the National Health Service Central Register[13].

  1. Smith (1.15%)
  2. Jones (0.94%)
  3. Williams (0.66%)
  4. Taylor (0.53%)
  5. Brown (0.51%)
  6. Davies (0.48%)
  7. Evans (0.39%)
  8. Wilson (0.35%)
  9. Thomas (0.35%)
  10. Johnson (0.34%)
  11. Roberts (0.33%)
  12. Robinson (0.29%)
  13. Thompson (0.28%)
  14. Wright (0.28%)
  15. Walker (0.27%)
  16. White (0.27%)
  17. Edwards (0.27%)
  18. Hughes (0.26%)
  19. Green (0.25%)
  20. Hall (0.25%)
  21. Lewis (0.25%)
  22. Harris (0.25%)
  23. Clarke (0.24%)
  24. Patel (0.24%)
  25. Jackson (0.24%)

100 most common surnames from the General Register Office for Scotland (1999/2000/2001):

  1. Smith
  2. Brown
  3. Wilson
  4. Campbell
  5. Stewart
  6. Thomson
  7. Robertson
  8. Anderson
  9. Macdonald
  10. Scott
  11. Reid
  12. Murray
  13. Taylor
  14. Clark
  15. Ross
  16. Watson
  17. Morrison
  18. Paterson
  19. Young
  20. Mitchell

Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA)[14] has released a list of the top three most common surnames. The list is expected to be expanded in January 2007.

  1. Kelly
  2. Campbell
  3. Wilson

According to 1990 U.S. Census data, the top hundred surnames in the U.S. are:

  1. Smith (1.006% of the population)
  2. Johnson (0.810%)
  3. Williams (0.699%)
  4. Jones (0.621%)
  5. Brown (0.621%)
  6. Davis (0.580%)
  7. Miller (0.424%)
  8. Wilson (0.339%)
  9. Moore (0.312%)
  10. Taylor (0.311%)
  11. Anderson (0.311%)
  12. Thomas (0.311%)
  13. Jackson (0.310%)
  14. White (0.279%)
  15. Harris (0.275%)
  16. Martin (0.273%)
  17. Thompson (0.269%)
  18. Garcia (0.254%)
  19. Martinez (0.234%)
  20. Robinson (0.233%)
  21. Clark
  22. Rodriguez
  23. Lewis
  24. Lee
  25. Walker
  26. Hall
  27. Allen
  28. Young
  29. Hernandez
  30. King
  31. Wright
  32. Lopez
  33. Hill
  34. Scott
  35. Green
  36. Adams
  37. Baker
  38. Gonzalez
  39. Nelson
  40. Carter
  41. Mitchell
  42. Perez
  43. Roberts
  44. Turner
  45. Phillips
  46. Campbell
  47. Parker
  48. Evans
  49. Edwards
  50. Collins
  51. Stewart
  52. Sanchez
  53. Morris
  54. Rogers
  55. Reed
  56. Cook
  57. Morgan
  58. Bell
  59. Murphy
  60. Bailey
  61. Rivera
  62. Cooper
  63. Richardson
  64. Cox
  65. Howard
  66. Ward
  67. Torres
  68. Peterson
  69. Gray
  70. Ramirez
  71. James
  72. Watson
  73. Brooks
  74. Kelly
  75. Sanders
  76. Price
  77. Bennett
  78. Wood
  79. Barnes
  80. Ross
  81. Henderson
  82. Coleman
  83. Jenkins
  84. Perry
  85. Powell
  86. Long
  87. Patterson
  88. Hughes
  89. Flores
  90. Washington
  91. Butler
  92. Simmons
  93. Foster
  94. Gonzales
  95. Bryant
  96. Alexander
  97. Russell
  98. Griffin
  99. Diaz
  100. Hayes

The distribution reflects the history of immigration into the country. Many immigrants from non-English-speaking countries Anglicized their names. Good examples of this are the popular Swedish name Johansson which was frequently changed to Johnson, and the German Müller which became Miller. Some very common Swedish names were so similar that only a minor change of spelling was necessary, such as Andersson and Jonsson, which is why these names are much more common in the U.S. than in the United Kingdom. Slavery also had an effect; names such as Jackson, Harris, Davis, Brown, and Jones are common among African Americans, since slaves tended to be given, or adopt, their owners' surnames.

García and Martínez of course represent the rapid growth of several Hispanic communities in the United States as very common names in most Spanish-speaking countries.

Note that some communities in the USA can have distributions of surnames far different from these.

See Vietnamese name
Name Percentage of population
1 Nguyễn 38.4%
2 Trần 11%
3 9.5%
4 Huỳnh (Hoàng) 5.1%
5 Phạm 5%
6 Phan 4.5%
7 Vũ (Võ) 3.9%
8 Đặng 2.1%
9 Bùi 2%
10 Đỗ 1.4%
11 Hồ 1.3%
12 Ngô 1.3%
13 Dương 1%
Source

Họ Và Tên Người Việt Nam ("Vietnamese Family and Personal Names"), compiled by Professor Le Trung Hoa, Social Sciences Publishing House (2005) [15]

The top 10 surnames cover more than 80% of population.

References

  1. ^ Nguyen is ranked 7th according to

See also

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