List of most popular family names 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): Argentina González Rodríguez López García Gómez 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). Brazil da Silva da Costa dos Santos Souza Oliveira Cavalcante or Cavalcanti Carvalho Pereira Menezes Ribeiro Most of Brazilian surnames refer to poor colonists and convicts who were the first immigrants into the nation, in 16th century. Since many of them had no family name, they were called "da Costa" when living near the sea coast or "da Silva" (from the jungle) if lived inland. The surname "dos Santos" (from the saints) was given to orphan children. Other common people names include some from Iberian origin, such as Pires, Rodrigues, Lopes, Mendes, Fernandes - notice that they end with -es, not -ez as in Spanish. "New Christians" (converted Jews) adopted names after trees (Pereira, Oliveira), geographic (Ribeiro, Matos), or animals (Coelho, Peixe). The middle and upper classes generally have non-Portuguese family names, especially Italian, German and Jewish, from more recent immigrations (this is reflected in the surnames of several Brazilian presidents). Bulgaria Ivanov Petrov Georgiev Dimitrov China Main articles: Chinese family name, List of common Chinese surnames (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 (陳) Chen2 (李) Li3 (張) Zhang1 (劉) Liu2 (楊) Yang2 (黃) Huang2 (吳) Wu2 (林) Lin2 (周) Zhou1 (葉) Ye4 (趙) Zhao4 (呂) Lü3 (徐) Xu2 (孫) Sun1 (朱) Zhu1 (高) Gao1 (馬) 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 (張) 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, (張) Zhang1, and (劉) Liu2; the south was dominated by (陳) Chen2, (趙) Zhao4, (黃) Huang2, (林) Lin2, and (吳) 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) http://www.dst.dk/Statistik/Navne/pop/2004.aspx 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 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 would be if Hans Petersens father was Peter Sørensen, Hans' fathers name was Peter, and his grandfather Søren. His son would then be Firstname Hansen. This method of naming children was widely used up to the middle of the 19th century. Sometimes it was also common to name girls f.ex. "Jensdatter" or "Poulsdatter", meaning daughter of Jens, or daughter of Poul. These names are seldomly seen in Denmark, but in Iceland, the "datter"-phrase, which in icelandic is "dottir", is stil widely known and used. Nowadays, the "sen" names have lost their meanings, as women use the names too. It is not common anymore, that Hans Petersens son would be Hansen, but more likely Petersen. Though, the "old" method is still used Egypt Abaza Sorour Kishk Estonia Tamm Mägi Finland Source: Population Register Centre, 17 May 2004. (Percentages based on the population of Finland on 1 January 2004.) Virtanen - 24,298 (0.466%) Korhonen - 23,698 (0.454%) Nieminen - 21,906 (0.420%) Mäkinen - 21,773 (0.417%) Mäkelä - 19,716 (0.378%) Hämäläinen - 19,577 (0.375%) Laine - 18,952 (0.363%) Koskinen - 18,023 (0.345%) Heikkinen - 17,892 (0.343%) Järvinen - 17,442 (0.334%) France Source: http://genealogy.about.com/cs/surname/a/french_surnames.htm Martin Bernard Thomas Petit Durand Richard Moreau Dubois Robert Laurent Simon Michel Leroy Garcia Lefebvre Roux David Bertrand Fournier Girard Bonnet Morel Rousseau Lambert Blanc Germany data from 1995 Müller (0.95%) Schmidt (0.69%) Schneider (0.40%) Fischer (0.35%) Meyer (0.33%) Weber (0.30%) Schulz (0.27%) Wagner (0.27%) Becker (0.27%) Hoffmann (0.26%) Data according to Kunze (1999): dtv-Atlas Namenkunde. München: dtv, S. 198. Most of these names formerly were names of different crafts, e.g. Müller is linked to working a mill. Hungary official data of the Central Personal Data Processing Office at Hungary's Ministry of Interior in 1998 http://www.registrationshu.org/fuzet/csalad.htm via http://www.bogardi.com/gen/g022.htm Nagy (244663) Kovács (228274) Tóth (223291) Szabó (217066) Horváth (201524) Kiss (139919) Varga (137398) Molnár (112878) Németh (97715) Farkas (83755) Balogh (79653) Papp (56235) Takács (55180) Juhász (54267) Mészáros (42738) Lakatos (41005) Simon (39881) Oláh (37147) Fekete (34755) Rácz (34518) Szilágyi (32628) Török (27888) Fehér (27262) Gál (26557) Balázs (26158) In Hungary, the family name is usually given first. India Main article: Indian family name Bhatia Singh Dua Kakkar Gera Goyal or Goel Nasa Purewal Nambissan Nambiar Kumar Kulkarni Sharma or Sarma Patel Shah or Shaha Lal Gupta and Gupte Gore Karnik Ajagaonkar Deshpande Deshmukh Desai Patil Jadhav Shinde Joglekar Patankar Chiplunkar Bhat Rao Reddy Jain Joshi Sastri or Shastri Iyer Iyengar Yadhav or Yadav Choudary or Chowdary Gowda or Gouda Ireland top 20. 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 Names starting with O' are 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 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. Latvia Bērziņš (Berzins) Kalniņš (Kalnins) Ozoliņš (Ozolins) Literally translated - the diminutive forms of birch, hill and oak... 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) Uszacki 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 surnames 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: http://www.ociototal.com/recopila2/r_aficiones/apellidos.html - 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 Singapore Hee or Hsu 許 Tan or Chan 陈 (陳) 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 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 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 referring 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 Registerhttp://freespace.virgin.net/philip.dance1/offstats/names1-500.htm: 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 the United Kingdom. Vietnam Nguyễn (Nguyen) See also Most popular names Family name affixes Most Popular Articles: Music    Musical Instruments    Guitar    Classical Music    History    Music Definition    Country Music    Rock Music    Pop Music    Hip Hop    Rap    DJ    Video Games    Casino Games    Poker    Blackjack    Casinos    Real Estate    Loan    Auction    eBay    Marketing    Search Engine Optimization    File Sharing    MP3    Music Industry    Kazaa    Internet    Supermodel    Fashion    Fashion Designers    Erotica    Modeling    Clothing    Boots    Shoes    Diamond Engagement Rings    Diamond    Rugs    Gospel Music    Affiliate    E-Commerce    Radio This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html for use of this content. 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