The Most Popular Surnames in Countries Around the World

Depending on where in the world you live, the most popular surname in your country will be wildly different. In the United States (and many other English-speaking countries), the most popular surname is Smith. Reddit user u/saadtheking posted a graphic that visualizes the most common surname in every country around the world. Read on to see which surname is the most popular in your country!

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The graphic utilizes a heat map visualization to not only showcase the most popular surnames in each country, but also the meaning behind them. Some surnames come from occupations (Smith in English-speaking countries), characteristics (Nowak, which means “newcomer” in Polish), and ancestral names (Hernandez in Mexico, which means son of Hernando/Fernando).

What are the most common surnames in the world? The world’s most popular surname is Wang, which an estimated 107 million people around the world have. It is the most common last name in China. Li/Lee is also a very popular surname with more than 100 million having it as their last name.

Smith is the most popular surname in many English-speaking countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. The surname originated in England and traditionally meant to refer to people who worked with metals (like blacksmiths). Surnames related to smithing and blacksmithing are found in other countries around the world as well. Smidt, Schmidt, Smits, Ferreira, and Kowal are other smithing-related surnames that are commonly found around the world.

Does your surname make the list of most popular surnames around the world?