List of most popular family names

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Family names can be unique or come in large numbers. In different countries some names are the most popular. Here is the listing (alphabetical by country names):

Belgium

(on January 1, 2002)

Peeters 33,273
Janssens 31,529
Maes 25,654
Jacobs 20,229
Mertens 18,927
Willems 18,604
Claes 16,822
Goossens 16,202
Wouters 15,950
De Smet 14,491

These are all names of Flemish origin; the most popular French name is Dubois (about 11,000).

China

Main article: Chinese family name

(based on statistics published in 姓氏人名用字分析統計 Beijing, PRC, 1990)

Chinese family names come in large numbers. In the 1990 study, the top 200 family names accounted for over 96% of the random sample of 174,900 persons, over 500 other names accounted for the remainder. The sample was taken from 1982 census data.

(王) Wang2
(陈) Chen2
(李) Li3
(张) Zhang1
(刘) Liu2
(杨) Yang2
(黄) Huang2
(吴) Wu2
(林) Lin2
(周) Zhou1
(叶) Ye4
(赵) Zhao4
(吕) Lü3
(徐) Xu2
(孙) Sun1
(朱) Zhu1
(高) Gao1
(马) Ma3
(梁) Liang2
(郭) Guo1

In a different study (1987) which combined data from mainland China and Taiwan (sample size of 570,000 persons), the outcome was a bit different. The number one Chinese family name was (李) Li3 at 7.9% of the sample, followed by (王) Wang2 at 7.4% and (张) Zhang1 at 7.1%, the study showed that the top 19 names covered 55.6% and the top 100 names covered 87% of the sample. Chinese family names distributed differently according to regions. The north was dominated by (李) Li3, (王) Wang2, (张) Zhang1, and (刘) Liu2; the south was dominated by (陈) Chen2, (赵) Zhao4, (黄) Huang2, (林) Lin2, and (吴) Wu2. There were over 450 family names in Beijing, but there were less than 300 family names in Guangdong and Fujian. Apparently the distribution of the statistics was significantly affected by the bias from the Taiwanese data.

Czech Republic

Novák (70 504)
Svoboda (52 088)
Novotný (49 962)
Dvořák (46 099)
Černý (36 743)
Procházka (33 274)
Kučera (31 286)
Veselý (26 481)
Horák (25 174)
Němec (22 795)
Marek (22 548)
Pokorný (22 203)
Pospíšil (22 189)
Hájek (21 276)
Jelínek (20 733)
Král (20 510)
Růžička (19846)
Beneš (19 600)
Fiala (19 121)
Sedláček (18 484)

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

Denmark

Most popular Danish family names (as of 2004) [1]

Jensen 303089
Nielsen 296850
Hansen 248968
Pedersen 186913
Andersen 172894
Christensen 133033
Larsen 129662
Sørensen 124175
Rasmussen 104130
Jørgensen 98354
Petersen 92189
Madsen 70176
Kristensen 65074
Olsen 54044
Thomsen 40514
Christiansen 40224
Poulsen 34203
Johansen 33120
Knudsen 31977
Mortensen 31252

Estonia

Tamm
Mägi

France

Martin
Bernard
Dupont

Germany

data from 1995

Müller (9,5%)
Schmidt (6,9%)
Schneider (4,0%)
Fischer (3,5%)
Meyer (3,3%)
Weber (3,0%)
Schulz (2,7%)
Wagner (2,7%)
Becker (2,7%)
Hoffmann (2,6%)

(Data according to Kunze (1999): dtv-Atlas Namenkunde. München: dtv, S. 198)

India

Main article: Indian family name

Ireland

top 20, see: [2]

Murphy (#1)
Kelly
O'Sullivan
Walsh
Smith
O'Brien
Byrne
Ryan
O'Connor
O'Neill
O'Reilly
Doyle
McCarthy
Gallagher
O'Doherty
Kennedy
Lynch
Murray
Quinn
Moore

Places starting with O' were to start with patronymic.

Israel

Cohen (כהן)
Levi (לוי)

The name Cohen belongs to the members of the ancient family of priests (Kohanim, descendants of Aaron). The name Levi belongs to the members of the family of Levites, descendants of Levi.

Japan

Main article: Japanese family name

(佐藤) Sato
(鈴木) Suzuki
(高橋) Takahashi
(田中) Tanaka
(渡辺) Watanabe
(伊藤) Ito
(山本) Yamamoto
(中村) Nakamura
(小林) Kobayashi
(斎藤) Saito
(加藤) Kato
(吉田) Yoshida
(山田) Yamada
(佐々木) Sasaki
(山口) Yamaguchi
(松本) Matsumoto
(井上) Inoue
(木村) Kimura
(林) Hayashi
(清水) Shimizu

Korea

Main article: Korean name#Family names

김 (Kim, Gim)
이 (Lee, Yi, I)
박 (Park, Pak, Bak)
최 (Choi, Choe)
정 (Jung, Chung, Jeong)
강 (Gang, Kang)
조 (Cho, Jo)
윤 (Yoon, Yun)
장 (Jang, Chang)
임 (Lim, Im)
한 (Han)
신 (Shin, Sin)
서 (Suh, Seo)
권 (Kwon, Gwon)
손 (Son)
황 (Whang, Hwang)
송 (Song)
안 (Ahn, An)
유 (Yoo, Yu)
홍 (Hong)

Korean surnames have a variety of ways of being romanized.

The Netherlands

from the 1947 census

De Jong 55,256
De Vries 49,298
Jansen 49,213
Van den Berg 37,678 (including Van der Berg and Van de Berg)
Bakker 37,483
Van Dijk 36,578
Visser 34,721
Janssen 32,824
Smit 29,783
Meijer, Meyer 28,256

Source: Meertens Instituut

Norway

Hansen (1.31%)
Olsen (1.21%)
Johansen (1.21%)
Larsen (0.90%)
Andersen (0.88%)
Nilsen (0.83%)
Pedersen (0.82%)
Kristiansen (0.55%)
Jensen (0.54%)
Karlsen (0.50%)
Johnsen (0.48%)
Pettersen (0.47%)
Eriksen (0.44%)
Berg (0.41%)
Haugen (0.32%)
Hagen (0.32%)
Johannessen (0.31%)
Andreassen (0.28%)
Jacobsen (0.27%)
Halvorsen (0.27%)

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

Nuevo León, (Mexico)

Martínez (8.50%)
Rodríguez (8.14%)
García (7.14%)
González (7.09%)
Hernández (7.06%)

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

Poland

Nowak (203 506)
Kowalski (139 719)
Wiśniewski (109 855)
Wójcik (99 509)
Kowalczyk (97 796)
Kamiński (94 499)
Lewandowski (92 449)
Zieliński (91 043)
Szymański (89 091)
Woźniak (88 039)
Dąbrowski (86 132)
Kozłowski (75 962)
Jankowski (68 514)
Mazur (66 773)
Wojciechowski (66 361)
Kwiatkowski (66 017)
Krawczyk (64 048)
Kaczmarek (61 816)
Piotrowski (61 380)
Grabowski (58 393)

Source: Zawadzki J.M, 2002, 1000 Najpopularniejszych nazwisk w Polsce [1000 of the most popular names in Poland], Warsaw: Świat Książki

Quebec, Canada

The 50 most popular surnames in Quebec

Tremblay (1.13%)
Gagnon (0.82%)
Roy (0.77%)
Côté (0.74%)
Bouchard (0.56%)
Gauthier (0.55%)
Morin (0.51%)
Lavoie (0.49%)
Fortin (0.47%)
Gagné (0.47%)
Pelletier (0.45%)
Bélanger (0.44%)
Bergeron (0.41%)
Lévesque (0.41%)
Simard (0.38%)
Girard (0.37%)
Leblanc (0.37%)
Boucher (0.35%)
Ouellet (0.34%)
Caron (0.32%)
Beaulieu (0.31%)
Poirier (0.31%)
Dubé (0.31%)
Cloutier (0.31%)
Fournier (0.30%)
Lapointe (0.30%)
Lefebvre (0.29%)
Poulin (0.28%)
Nadeau (0.28%)
Martin (0.27%)
St-Pierre (0.27%)
Martel (0.26%)
Grenier (0.26%)
Landry (0.26%)
Lessard (0.26%)
Leclerc (0.25%)
Bédard (0.25%)
Bernier (0.24%)
Couture (0.24%)
Richard (0.23%)
Michaud (0.23%)
Desjardins (0.23%)
Hébert (0.22%)
Blais (0.22%)
Turcotte (0.22%)
Savard (0.22%)
Lachance (0.22%)
Parent (0.22%)
Demers (0.21%)
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 6 000 premiers noms de famille par ordre alphabétique, Québec

Romania

Popescu
Popa
Radu
Ionescu
Şerban
Matei
Stoica
Gheorghe
Constantin
Stan
Dumitrescu
Mihai
Ioniţă
Dumitru
Dinu
Tudor
Dobre
Barbu
Ştefan
Florea
Ene
Vasile
Marin
Ghiţă
Georgescu

Russia

Source 1000 sirnames of Krasnoyarsk

Иванов (Ivanov)
Кузнецов (Kuznetsov)
Попов (Popov)
Петров (Petrov)
Васильев (Vasiljev)
Смирнов (Smirnov)
Козлов (Kozlov)
Михайлов (Mihajlov)
Семенов (Semenov)
Степанов (Stepanov)

Serbia and Montenegro

Petrović
Jovanović

Spain

Source: [3] - Data from December 1999.

García - 1,378,000 people (3.48%)
Fernández - 851,000 (2.15%)
González - 839,000 (2.12%)
Rodríguez - 804,000 (2.03%)
López - 796,000 (2.01%)
Martínez - 788,000 (1.97%)
Sánchez - 725,000 (1.83%)
Pérez - 709,000 (1.79%)
Martín - 459,000 (1.16%)
Gómez - 440,000 (1.11%)
Ruiz - 321,000 (0.81%)
Hernández - 305,000 (0.77%)
Jiménez - 293,000 (0.74%)
Díez - 293,000 (0.74%)
Álvarez - 273,000 (0.69%)
Moreno - 261,000 (0.66%)
Muñoz - 241,000 (0.61%)
Alonso - 206,000 (0.52%)
Gutiérrez - 170,000 (0.43%)
Romero - 170,000 (0.43%)
Navarro - 158,400 (0.40%)
Torres - 134,600 (0.34%)
Domínguez - 134,600 (0.34%)
Gil - 134,600 (0.34%)
Vázquez - 130,000 (0.33%)
Serrano - 122,700 (0.31%)
Ramos - 118,000 (0.30%)
Blanco - 118,000 (0.30%)
Sanz - 106,900 (0.27%)
Castro - 102,900 (0.26%)
Suárez - 102,900 (0.26%)
Ortega - 99,000 (0.25%)
Rubio - 99,000 (0.25%)
Molina - 99,000 (0.25%)
Delgado - 95,000 (0.24%)
Ramírez - 95,000 (0.24%)
Morales - 95,000 (0.24%)
Ortiz - 87,120 (0.22%)
Marín - 83,160 (0.21%)
Iglesias - 83,160 (0.21%)

Family names ending in -ez are typically patronymic

Sweden

official statistics

Johansson (3.3%)
Andersson (3.2%)
Karlsson (2.5%)
Nilsson (2.2%)
Eriksson (1.7%)
Larsson (1.6%)
Olsson (1.4%)
Persson (1.4%)
Svensson (1.3%)
Gustafsson (0.90%)
Pettersson (0.83%)
Jonsson (0.72%)
Jansson (0.63%)
Hansson (0.54%)
Bengtsson (0.42%)
Jönsson (0.42%)
Petersson (0.37%)
Carlsson (0.34%)
Gustavsson (0.32%)
Magnusson (0.32%)
Lindberg (0.31%)
Olofsson (0.30%)

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 Great Britain 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 such as Lindberg (linden/lime mountain), Sjöman (Seaman) and Nyman (Newman), but because of the greater diversity of these names each specific name is less common than most "son-names". Noble persons in Sweden often, but not always, have surnames refering to their coat of arms or non-swedish names.

United Kingdom

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[4]:

Smith (1.15%)
Jones (0.94%)
Williams (0.66%)
Taylor (0.53%)
Brown (0.51%)
Davies (0.48%)
Evans (0.39%)
Wilson (0.35%)
Thomas (0.35%)
Johnson (0.34%)
Roberts (0.33%)
Robinson (0.29%)
Thompson (0.28%)
Wright (0.28%)
Walker (0.27%)
White (0.27%)
Edwards (0.27%)
Hughes (0.26%)
Green (0.25%)
Hall (0.25%)

United States

see Census data

(Numbers in parenthesis are percentage of population with that name.)

Smith (1.006%)
Johnson (0.810%)
Williams (0.699%)
Jones (0.621%)
Brown (0.621%)
Davis (0.480%)
Miller (0.424%)
Wilson (0.339%)
Moore (0.312%)
Taylor (0.311%)
Anderson (0.311%)
Thomas (0.311%)
Jackson (0.310%)
White (0.279%)
Harris (0.275%)
Martin (0.273%)
Thompson (0.269%)
Garcia (0.254%)
Martinez (0.234%)
Robinson (0.233%)

The distribution of family names in the U.S. reflects the history of immigration into the country. Many immigrants from non English speaking countries adopted English family names. Good examples of this are the popular Swedish name Johansson which was frequently changed to Johnson, and the German Müller changed to Miller. Some very common Swedish names were so similar that only a minor change of spelling was necessary, such as Andersson and Jonsson. This is why these names are much more common in the U.S. than in Great Britain.

Vietnam

Nguyễn (Nguyen)