America's Most Common Last Names Explained

In this video, we look at the most common surnames of the United States and discuss their meaning and origins.

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The following music performed by Kevin Macleod Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049 [orig. by JS Bach]

Works Cited

[1] United States Census Bureau. “Frequently Occuring Surnames From the 2010 Census.” United States Census Bureau, 2010.

Picture attributions:

[tylertate]

The skits at the end actually always make me laugh. This man loves two things: history and shitposting. I respect that

[miriambertram]

Surnames in England became more common in 13th century due to Plague. More movement from decimated villages to cities increased the need to distinguish among folks with same first name

[RedRisotto]

I love translations of Finnish last names. My (translated to English) favorites: "Hit The Priest With A Hammer", "Touches Horses Inappropriately", "Hit Head On Rock As Child." Finnish last names are so loooong, and they often tell a whole story. They are not all about nature. or descriptors of land/area lived on.

[PinballBob]

Fun fact: The Spanish explorer, Cabeza de Vaca, (meaning Cow's head) was the grandson of a scout who guided the King of Spain by marking a trail with a cow's skull. In gratitude the King gifted him with the surname. Anything to keep from spending a few pesetas unnecessarily.

[OzSteve]

In old English, smith also meant someone who made things and wasn't restricted to metals. Watchsmith and leathersmith are good examples. This would also explain how so many people were called Smith.

[greenerpastures]

Interesting about the Smith name. I always thought there were more Smiths because while everyone else had to go to war, smithys did not see much actual battle because they had to stay back to forge weapons/armour. Thus they were more likely to survive and pass their surname along.

[LocaalDent]

The ending just about killed me. I thought my speaker gave out for a quick sec. Hilarious stuff.

[hectorsmommy]

The most common last name in the US is Smith and the most common first name among the Smiths is James. I had an uncle named James Smith and he once got invited to a gathering for all of the James Smiths in Iowa. I forget how many went but he said it was crowded.

[Riceball]

As far as the surname Lee in Chinese goes, it's distinctly possible that in China, Taiwan, and probably Singapore there multiple forms of Lee that happen to sound similar but are spelt using entirely different characters. I know that this is the case for Wang/Wong (no difference in meaning based on the spelling), there are 2 forms of the surname; one means (the color) yellow, while the other means king or emperor. While they sound similar, they are spelt using different characters and there may be slight difference in pitch when pronouncing the names, something that English doesn't do.

[charlayned]

Working on my genealogy, on my dad's side, my grandfather's last name was Brown and my grandmother's last name was Smith. Yeah, talk about really hard to work through your family tree. At least my mom's side, with its Southard, Coan, and Musgrove names were a lot easier to deal with. Good video.

In Czech Republic we have lots of weird surnames which would translate to something like "don't eat the bread", "jump in the field", "salt it for yourself", "I welcome you", "Bring it home" etc. They aren't super common but they do exist. Also many people have names after animals ("owl, squirrel, hamster..."). My own surname has a terrible meaning in Czech language. 😅😅 Can't wait to get married. Anyways, I guess there are stories behind the origins too... 😊

[citizenVader]

I was born in the last region in Denmark, which still uses patrinymes, and usually, the name of the craft you are acquainted with is mixed in as a middle name..
If I had to translate/construct my whole name into the original meaning, it becomes Lars, the son of Rasmus the castle Smith.

[mitchellbrown]

Another interesting origin for the name Brown (mine) is from the Brown clan in Scotland.

There are two different origin stories for how the clan got its name, one claiming that the name came from a Norman lord named "Le Brun". This does translate from French to the color brown and was likely referring to hair color, but was then given to the whole clan, many more people than his own descendants, and an early example of this surname. I know this explanation has been favored by some of the nobility in the clans history because it would have given them stronger claims to thrones or made them seem more French which was desirable back in the day.

The other explanation for the clan name's origin is that it actually has nothing at all to do with the color and that it comes from the Gaelic word Brehon, meaning a judge of the law.

[rob]

“I’m American, honey—our names don’t mean shit.” -Butch Coolidge

[pattrik]

What a great video. Straight to the info. No bs or useless YouTube filler. Nice work! Subscribed.

[Xiuhcoatl_]

Lets gooo another Kindling of Knowledge video!!!

[joshjones]

Lol that ending to the video 😂
Also, fascinating description of very common surname origins.

[kevinlawler]

A fire of learning video? Always great to see, we are very fortunate.

[TribalMatriarch]

As a side comment, the name Lee denotes “on the sheltered side of a hill” in most of the north of England, something to do with those pesky Vikings. Yorkshire has a lot of names and words from the Norse languages simply because of the long time they occupied the area.

[BillTxn]

I have read that the name "William" originated in the medieval period in northern Europe and was pronounced with a guttural; "G" sound in front of it, similar to "Gwilliam". That name, in turn, relates to the Spanish "Guillermo" (William).