What’s in a name? Our last names are a defining characteristic of our identity, indicating family lineage and history. But what are the most common surnames in the world? Unsurprisingly, the answer varies and in some cases intersect as you travel across the globe.
Digg recently catalogued the most common last names in the world and came up with some interesting results.
The last name carried by the most people in the world is Wang (which means “king”), with an approximate 76 million. Most live in China, and indeed the majority of the most common surnames are from countries in Asia. Coming in next is Devi, with 69 million and Zhang with 68 million.
In English speaking countries, Smith, the generic pseudonym du jour for years, reigns supreme. It’s tops in the United States with about three million people, and is also the most common in Canada, England, New Zealand and Australia.
Also popular in the U.S. is Johnson (2.3 million), Williams (1.9 million) and Brown and Jones — each clocking in with around 1.7 million.
Europe is a mixed bag when it comes to their most popular last names. Spain (Garcia), France (Martin), Italy (Rossi), Norway (Hansen), Sweden (Andersson) and Ireland (Murphy) are all names that are also quite common in the United States thanks to immigration. Not as…
