List of most popular family names

Surnames are unique and there are thousands of them all over the world. In different countries, some names are more common than others. In the past, surnames were often given depending on one's occupation. For example, a blacksmith's surname would most likely be 'Smith,' and a baker's surname would probably be 'Baker'. This is a listing of the most common surnames (alphabetical by country names):

[edit] Asia

[edit] China

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) Li
2. (王) Wáng
3. (张) Zhāng
4. (刘) Liú
5. (陈) Chén
6. (杨) Yáng
7. (黄) Huáng
8. (赵) Zhào
9. (周) Zhōu
10. (吴) Wú
11. (徐) Xú
12. (孙) Sūn
13. (朱) Zhū
14. (马) Mǎ
15. (胡) Hú
16. (郭) Guō
17. (林) Lín
18. (何) Hé
19. (高) Gāo
20. (梁) Liáng

[edit] Japan

Main article: Japanese name

Based on the Japanese surname Dictionary (日本苗字大辞典) issued in July 1996, there are 291,129 different surnames in Japan. If surnames pronounced or romanized the same but written with different Chinese characters count as different surnames, there are believed to be approximately 300,000 surnames in Japan. The top 10 surnames cover approximately 10% of the population and the top ranked 7,000 surnames cover slightly more than approx. 96%.(Source:Top 7,000 Surnames of Japan)

This ranking is based on the average number of the entries in all Japanese Yellow Pages for the past three years.

Source: Nationwide Top 10,000 Surnames^{[dead link]}by Tadashige Murayama. "The 2006 Japanese Surnames Research". Myōji-kan (苗字舘). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.

[edit] Korea

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)

Main article: List of Korean family names

Korean surnames have a variety of ways of being romanized.

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; Jeong, Chung)
6. 강 (姜; Kang, Gang)
7. 조 (曹; Cho, Jo, Joe)
8. 윤 (尹; Yoon, Youn, Yun)
9. 장 (張; Jang, Chang)
10. 신 (申; Shin, Sin)
11. 한 (韓; Han)
12. 서 (徐; Seo,Suh)
13. 권 (權; Kwon)
14. 손 (孫; Son, Sohn)
15. 황 (黃; Hwang, Whang)
16. 송 (宋; Song,Soung)
17. 안 (安; Ahn, An)
18. 임 (林; Lim, Rim, Im)
19. 유 (柳; Yoo, Yu)
20. 홍 (洪; Hong)
21. 전 (全; Jeon, Jun)

Source: National Statistical Office, Republic of Korea.

[edit] Philippines

Common surnames

1. Santos
2. Reyes
3. Cruz
4. Bautista
5. Ocampo
6. Garcia
7. Mendoza
8. Torres
9. Castillo
10. Flores
11. Villanueva
12. Ramos
13. Castro
14. Rivera
15. Aquino
16. Navarro
17. Salazar
18. Mercado
19. Concepcion
20. Santiago

Prefix DE'

1. Dela Cruz
2. Delos Reyes
3. Del Rosario
4. Delos Santos
5. De Guzman
6. De Castro
7. Dela Vega
8. Dela Rosa
9. De Asis
10. De Rosales

Suffix 'EZ

1. González
2. López
3. Hernández
4. Pérez
5. Fernández
6. Ramirez
7. Dominguez
8. Enriquez
9. Alvarez
10. Sánchez

The majority of Filipinos use Spanish surnames like other former Spanish colonies. However, many Filipinos still use their native surnames such as Kalaw, Macaraeg, Gatdula and many others. Filipino Chinese often use their Chinese family names. Some other Filipino mestizos (mixed-ancestry) bear the foreign names of their bloodline.

Source: National Statistics Office.

See also: Philippine name and Catálogo alfabético de apellidos

[edit] Singapore

Popular Chinese surnames - based on a "paper". Archived from the original on 2008-01-23. published by Statistics Singapore, 2000:

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

See also: List of common Chinese surnames

[edit] Taiwan

Popular Taiwanese surnames - based on Ministry of the Interior also see Common Chinese Names^[1]

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

See also: Taiwanese name

[edit] Vietnam

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

1. Nguyễn 阮 (38.4%)
2. Trần 陳 (11%)
3. Lê 黎 (9.5%)
4. Phạm 范 (7.1%)
5. Huỳnh/Hoàng 黃 (5.1%)
6. Phan 潘 (4.5%)
7. Vũ/Võ 武 (3.9%)
8. Đặng 鄧(2.1%)
9. Bùi 裴 (2%)
10. Đỗ 杜 (1.4%)
11. Hồ 胡 (1.3%)
12. Ngô 吳 (1.3%)
13. Dương 楊 (1%)
14. Lý 李 (0.5%)

Source: Họ Và Tên Người Việt Nam ("Vietnamese Family and Personal Names"), compiled by Professor Le Trung Hoa, Social Sciences Publishing House (2005).^[2]

See also: Vietnamese name

[edit] India

[edit] Common North and Central India surnames

(Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, etc.)

1. Kapoor/Kapur (Punjabi)
2. Tandon
3. Khanna (name)
4. Arora
5. Gill (Punjab)
6. Singh (entire North India)
7. Verma (primarily Bihar or UP)
8. Gupta
9. Agrawal/Agarwal/Aggarwal (Rajasthan, UP, MP)
10. Malhotra
11. Bhatnagar (UP/Bihar)
12. Saxena (UP/Bihar)
13. Sharma (whole of North India.; primarily UP)
14. Jha (Mithlanchal)
15. Mehra (Punjab)
16. Chopra (Punjab)
17. Nayyar (Punjab)
18. Sarin
19. Kaul (Kashmir)
20. Watal (Kashmir)
21. Malik
22. Yadav (UP/Bihar)
23. Jhadav
24. Jaiteley
25. Chauhan (Rajasthan, MP)
26. Mistry
27. Mishra
28. Khan (implies Pathan origin)
29. Rawat
30. Pareek
31. Ohri (Punjab)
32. Patidar
33. Patel

[edit] Common Eastern India surnames

(Mostly Bengal but also Orissa, Assam, etc.)

1. Chatterjee/Chattopadhayay/Chatterji
2. Mitra
3. Ghosh
4. Bose
5. Sengupta
6. Das
7. Dasgupta
8. Banerjee/Bandopadhyay
9. Mukopadhyay/Mukherji
10. Patra/Mahapatra (Orissa)
11. Pattnaik
12. Mohanty
13. Sarma/Sarmah ( Regional variations of Sharma )

[edit] Common North-(far)Eastern India surnames

(Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachalpradesh, Sikkim)

1. Bhutia (Sikkim)
2. Thapa (Nepal/Sikkim)
3. Lyndem (Meghalaya)

[edit] Common Southern India surnames

(Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, etc.)

1. Menon (Kerala)
2. Nair (Kerala)
3. Shetty(Karnataka)
4. Pillai
5. Rao (Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra)
6. Jayaraman
7. Venkatesan
8. Balasubramanium
9. Subramanium
10. Rangan
11. Uthappa (Coorg)
12. Rangarajan
13. Rai (Karnataka)

[edit] Common Western India surnames

(Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc)

1. Patel (Gujarat)
2. Shah (Gujarat)
3. Mehta (Punjab/Gujarat)
4. Patil (Maharashtra)
5. Pawar/Powar
6. Gavde
7. Kadam
8. Joshi
9. Tambe
10. Chavan
11. D'souza, Lobo, Rodrigues, D'Costa (Goan surnames- former Portuguese colonies in India)
12. Jessia, Tata (Parsi surnames. Usually found in Bombay/Gujarat)

Source:^[3] .

[edit] Middle East

[edit] Israel

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

Source: http://www.britam.org/jerusalem/jerusalem271to300.html, quoting from Yediot Achronot, February 23, 2004.

[edit] Central America

[edit] Costa Rica

Source: "Conozca los nombres más curiosos del país," Periódico Al Día.

[edit] Eurasia (transcontinental)

[edit] Russia

The 20 most common Russian surnames (from the European part of Russia, as calculated by Balanovska et al., 2006,^[4] ):

1. Смирнов (Smirnov, 1.61%) - "quiet man's"
2. Иванов (Ivanov, 1.30%) - "John's"
3. Кузнецов (Kuznetsov, 0.90%) - "smith's"
4. Попов (Popov, 0.79%) - "priest's"
5. Соколов (Sokolov, 0.73%) - "falcon's"
6. Лебедев (Lebedev, 0,65%) - "swan's"
7. Козлов (Kozlov, 0,58%) - "he-goat's"
8. Новиков (Novikov, 0,54%) - "novik's" (novik - a teenager on military service who comes from a noble, boyar, or cossack family in Russia of 16th-18th centuries).
9. Морозов (Morozov, 0.53%) - "frost's"
10. Петров (Petrov, 0.44%) - "Peter's"
11. Волков (Volkov, 0.44%) - "wolf's"
12. Соловьёв (Solovyov, 0.44%) - "nightingale's"
13. Васильев (Vasilyev, 0.42%) - "Basil's"
14. Зайцев (Zaytsev, 0.41%) - "hare's"
15. Павлов (Pavlov, 0.39%) - "Paul's"
16. Семёнов (Semyonov, 0,35%) - "Simeon's"
17. Голубев (Golubev, 0,32%) - "pigeon's"
18. Виноградов (Vinogradov, 0.32%) - "grape's"
19. Богданов (Bogdanov, 0.31%) - "Bogdan's" (Bogdan - a Ukrainian given name)
20. Воробьёв (Vorobyov, 0.30%) - "sparrow's"

Russian surnames may originally denote "son of" or "serf of". Women's surnames have an "-a" feminine ending. Thus, for example, "Ivanova" means "belonging to John" or "John's daughter".

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 Smirnov, Ivanov and Kuznetsov.

[edit] Turkey

1. Yılmaz (means "dauntless")
2. Kaya (means "rock")
3. Demir (means "iron")
4. Şahin (means "falcon")
5. Çelik (means "steel")
6. [name]oğlu (son of [name])

Source: Turkish Directorate-General of Population and Citizenships:^[5] &^[6]

[edit] Europe

[edit] Austria

The forty most common surnames in Austria as published in 2006 are shown below beside the approximate percentage of the Austrian population sharing each surname.^[7]

[edit] Belgium

Belgium is a European nation composed of three main regions: Flemish (Flanders), Walloon (Wallonia), and Brussels (nestled in south Flanders, near the Wallonian border). The Flemish region has a Dutch language tradition, while the Walloon region has a French language tradition. These different linguistic histories are reflected in differing commonalities of surnames, as shown in the table below.^[8]

[edit] Czech Republic

Source: Ministry of Interior (as of 2002).

Feminized names included (m. Novák - f. Nováková).

[edit] Denmark

Most popular Danish family names (as of 2004):^[11]

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.

[edit] Estonia

Many common Estonian surnames relate to nature and the natural environment:

1. Tamm (5,180) - Oak/dam
2. Saar (4,306) - Ash (tree)/island
3. Mägi (3,565) - Mountain/hill
4. Sepp (3,550) - Smith
5. Kask - Birch
6. Kukk - Rooster
7. Rebane - Fox
8. Ilves - Lynx
9. Pärn - Linden
10. Koppel - Paddock
11. Luik - Swan
12. Oja - Brook
13. Kaasik - Birch grove
14. Lepik - Alder grove
15. Raudsepp - Blacksmith
16. Kuusk - Spruce/fir
17. Karu - Bear
18. Kütt - Hunter
19. Põder - Moose
20. Vaher- Maple

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs Estonia, press release "Tamm, Saar, Mägi and Sepp are the most common family names in Estonia" 09.02.2005,^[12] February 1, 2005.

[edit] Finland

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 on this list are typical examples of surnames that were adopted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time before which many Finns had no surname in today's sense. In the romantic spirit, they refer to natural features — virta "river", koski "rapids", mäki "hill" — often with the suffix -nen added after the model of older, mainly eastern Finnish surnames such as Korhonen and Heikkinen. "Hämäläinen" literally means an inhabitant of Häme. Heikki is a Finnish form of the man's name Henry.

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

[edit] France

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 God 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:^[13] (2004)

[edit] Georgia

Source: 2007.^[14]

[edit] Germany

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Data from 1995.

1. Müller (0.95%) (Miller)
2. Schmidt (0.69%) (Smith, blacksmith)
3. Schneider (0.40%) (Tailor)
4. Fischer (0.35%) (Fisher)
5. Meyer (0.33%) (from Latin "major", the bigger one, referring to the name-giver's status, means "official" (mayor, police officer, sheriff, etc), "peasant", or from the Jewish surname Meir; 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. Schäfer (Shephard)
12. Koch (Cook)
13. Bauer (Farmer)
14. Richter (Judge)
15. Klein (small)
16. Schröder (Taylor)
17. Wolf
18. Neumann (Newman)
19. Schwarz (Black)
20. Zimmermann (Carpenter)
21. Krüger (Innkeeper)
22. Braun (Brown)
23. Hofmann (Farmer)
24. Schmitz (Smith)
25. Hartmann (Strongman or Woodman)
26. Lange (Long)
27. Schmitt (Smith)
28. Werner (strong warrior)
29. Krause (Curly)
30. Meier (Major)
31. Schmid (Smith)
32. Lehmann (Vassal)
33. Schultze (Judge)
34. Maier (Major)
35. Köhler (Collier)
36. Herrmann (Warrior)
37. Walter (Harold)
38. König (King)
39. Mayer (Major)
40. Huber (Farmer)
41. Kaiser (Caesar)
42. Fuchs (Fox)
43. Peters
44. Möller (Miller)
45. Scholz (Judge)
46. Lang (Long)
47. Weiss (White)
48. Jung (Young)
49. Hahn (Rooster)
50. Vogel (Bird)

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

[edit] Greece

1. Papadopoulos/ou (priest΄s son, Peloponnese΄s region)
2. Pappas/a (priest)
3. Avramidis|(Abraham's) [any surnames ending with -idis is from region of Pontos, ex-Greek now Turkish-Russian border region].
4. Georgiadis| (George's) [any surnames ending with -iadis i.e, Alexiadis, Dimitriadis etc]

[edit] Hungary

1. Nagy (239,310; 'big')
2. Kovács (221,687; 'blacksmith')
3. Tóth (216,758; 'Slovak/Slav', also: 'Croat')
4. Szabó (212,586; 'tailor', cf. Schneider, Couturier)
5. Horváth, Horvát (201,059; 'Croat')
6. Varga (139,764; 'shoemaker', cf. Schumacher, person working with leather)
7. Kiss (134,305; 'small', cf. Klein, Petit, Lepetit)
8. Molnár (109,178; 'miller', cf. Müller, Meunier
9. Németh, Német (93,990; 'German', cf. Deutsch, Lallemand)
10. Farkas (83,346; 'wolf', cf. Wolf)
11. Balogh (80,113; 'left-handed', 'unskillful')
12. Papp (53,847; 'priest')
13. Takács (53,402; 'weaver', 'cloth-maker', cf. Weber, Tissandier, Teyssandier)
14. Juhász (52,495; 'shepherd', cf. Schäfer, Berger)
15. Lakatos (45,051; 'locksmith')
16. Mészáros (41,061; 'butcher', cf. Fleischer, Boucher)
17. Simon (38,481; <given name>)
18. Oláh (38,311; Vlach, 'Romanian')
19. Fekete (35,179; 'black', cf. Schwarz, Lenoir)
20. Rácz (35,109; 'Serb', also: 'Croat')
21. Szilágyi (31,986; from Szilágy county)
22. Török (27,206; 'Turkish')
23. Fehér (26,804; 'white', cf. Weiss, Leblanc)
24. Gál, Gaál (25,924; <given name>, 'Gallic', cf. Le Gall)
25. Balázs (25,804; <given name>)
26. Kis (24,613; see Kiss, above)
27. Szűcs (24,416; 'leather taylor')
28. Pintér (23,951; 'cooper', cf. Binder)
29. Kocsis (23,911; 'coachman')
30. Fodor (23,371; 'curly hair')

The above is official data of the Central Personal Data Processing Office at Hungary's Ministry of Interior in 2006.^[15]

Other frequent surnames:

Lengyel ('Polish'), Földes ('land-owner), Erdős ('woody', 'from the forest'), Erdélyi ('Transylvanian'), Vörös, Veres, Weöres ('red-haired'), Katona ('soldier'), Fazekas ('potter'), Király ('king'), Kántor ('church singer')

Notes:

• 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: Bauer, Mayer, Schmidt (German), Mravik, Novák, Zsilinszky (Slovak), Csernicskó (East Slavonic), Biszku, Marosán, Torgyán (Romanian), Nemcsik, Bencsics, Popovics, Petrovics (South Slavonic), Dobrev (Bulgarian), Kohn, Schwartz, Steiner (Ashkenazi Jewish)

[edit] Ireland

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. Doherty
16. Kennedy
17. Lynch
18. Murray
19. Quinn
20. Moore

Source: The Top 500 Irish & British Surnames, The Observer, 15th April 2007.^[16]

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

[edit] Italy

1. Rossi (red-haired; ruddy – common in Northern and Central Italy)
2. Russo (red-haired; ruddy – common in Southern Italy)
3. Ferrari (blacksmith; iron worker – cf. Smith)
4. Esposito (exposed child, i.e. foundling)
5. Bianchi (fair-skinned; fair-haired – cf. White)
6. Romano (Roman)
7. Colombo (dove)
8. Ricci (curly-haired – common in Northern and Central Italy)
9. Marino (of the sea)
10. Greco (Greek)
11. Bruno (brunet – cf. Brown)
12. Gallo (rooster; Gallic)
13. Conti (count)
14. De Luca (son of Luca – cf. Lucas)
15. Costa (from the coast)
16. Giordano (equivalent of Jordan)
17. Mancini (left-handed)
18. Rizzo (curly-haired – common in Southern Italy)
19. Lombardi (Lombard)
20. Moretti (swarthy – cf. Moore)

Sources: Gens; Ancestry.com

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

[edit] Latvia

1. Bērziņš - Diminutive of Birch
2. Kalniņš - Diminutive of Hill
3. Ozoliņš - Diminutive of Oak
4. Jansons - Son of Jānis,one of most popular male names in Latvia,John
5. Ozols - Oak
6. Liepiņš - Diminutive of Linden
7. Krūmiņš - Diminutive of Bush
8. Balodis - Pigeon
9. Eglītis - Diminutive of Fir tree
10. Zariņš - Diminutive of Branch
11. Pētersons - Peter's Son
12. Vītols - Willow
13. Kļaviņš - Diminutive of Maple
14. Kārkliņš - Diminutive of Sallow
15. Vanags - Hawk

Source: Latvian Institute.

[edit] Lithuania

Most common Lithuanian surnames, 2008:

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: Interesting Statistics, Department of Statistics to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (Statistics Lithuania), Retrieved Sept 12, 2008.

[edit] Malta

Source: "Census 2005: A focus on surnames in Malta", National Statistics Office Malta,^[18] November 27, 2005. Source of etymologies:^[19] .

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

Source:^[21] , which refers to "Surnames in Malta: what can they tell us?" by Prof. Joseph M. Brincat. Source of etymologies:^[19] .

[edit] Netherlands

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.

Source: Nederlands Repertorium van Familienamen, Meertens-Instituut, 1963-1988. Data can be viewed in the Database of Surnames in the Netherlands, May 31, 1947.

[edit] Norway

1. Hansen
2. Johansen
3. Olsen
4. Larsen
5. Andersen
6. Nilsen
7. Pedersen
8. Kristiansen
9. Jensen
10. Karlsen
11. Johnsen
12. Pettersen
13. Eriksen
14. Berg
15. Haugen
16. Hagen
17. Johannessen
18. Andreassen
19. Jacobsen
20. Halvorsen

Source: Statistics Norway: Name statistics.

[edit] Poland

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 popular name Wojciech; from word "wojak" (warrior), from real estates Wójcza, Wójciki; from wójt, a noun describing chief officer of a municipality (gmina))
5. Kowalczyk (97,796, from kowal "smith", literally "smith's son")
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, "cart")
11. Dąbrowski (86,132; from dąb "oak tree")
12. Kozłowski (75,962; from kozioł "he-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 krawiec "tailor", "taylor's son")
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")
22. Jaworski (44,104;from 'jawor