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55 views

Calling James Smith! 10 Most Common First and Sur 3

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Justice robert
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Calling James Smith! 10


Most Common First and
Surname Combinations

SURNAMES
20 January 2015
BY ANCESTRY® TEAM

If you look up when someone says “James Smith,” you’ve


got plenty of company.

That’s the most popular first and last name combination


in the United States, according to a study conducted last
year by a retired university professor. So as you research
your family background
background, you might find some
spouses or distant cousins with that very name.

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Here are the top 10 most common name combinations


and the number of individuals with that combo,
according to last year’s study:

1. James Smith: 38,313


2. Michael Smith: 34,810
3. Robert Smith: 34,269
4. Maria Garcia: 32,092
5. David Smith: 31,294
6. Maria Rodriguez: 30,507
7. Mary Smith: 28,692
8. Maria Hernandez: 27,836
9. Maria Martinez: 26,956
10. James Johnson: 26,850

Enter your last name to learn its meaning


and origin.

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Lee Hartman, an associate professor emeritus of Spanish


at Southern Illinois University, arrived at those
combinations by pairing the most common given names
with the most common surnames, according to census
information. Hartman then submitted each combination
to Whitepages.com’s name popularity search engine to
see how o!en each combination was actually used.

Not surprisingly, Hartman discovered that the frequency


of certain name combinations reflect America’s cultural
history, in ways both obvious and subtle. The frequency
of Maria Garcia and Maria Rodriguez, for example, reflect
the growing presence of Hispanics in the United States.

Garcia, a Spanish surname of Basque origin, and


Rodriguez, meaning “son of Rodrigo,” were the eighth-
and ninth-most common surnames in the United States.

Similarly, Smith has been the most common last name in


the United States since its founding, so it’s not surprising
that it appears in seven of the top 13 combinations. But
some commentators have noted with surprise how
relatively uncommon “John Smith” is. Hartman
attributed that both to the desire of parents to avoid a
placeholder name (like “John Doe”) and that fact that
John tends to be more popular in more predominantly
Catholic countries, whereas Smith, of course, is the
prototypical English, Protestant name.

Hartman hasn’t conducted his analysis for any other


decades (and neither has Whitepages.com) to determine
what the most popular name combinations have been in
the past. But census information is available for the
most popular family names and most popular given
names from the early days of the Republic.

Thus, in 1850, these were the most common surnames:

1. Smith
2. Brown
3. Miller
4. Johnson
5. Jones
6. Davis
7. Williams
8. Wilson
9. Clark
10. Taylor

The most popular boys names in 1850 were:

1. John
2. William
3. James
4. George
5. Henry
6. Thomas
7. Charles
8. Joseph
9. Samuel
10. David

The most popular girls names in 1850 were:

1. Mary
2. Sarah
3. Elizabeth
4. Martha
5. Margaret
6. Nancy
7. Ann
8. Jane
9. Eliza
10. Catherine

Going back in time to 1790, the year of the very first


United States census, here are the most common nine
surnames, which represented about 4 percent of the total
white population:

1. Smith
2. Brown
3. Davis
4. Jones
5. Johnson
6. Clark
7. Williams
8. Miller
9. Wilson

English and Scottish names constituted nearly the entire


population, with the exception of New York,
Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Pennsylvania
contributed half of all reported surnames, a reflection of
the large German population there.

The most popular given names of that time for girls


consisted of:

1. Mary
2. Elizabeth
3. Sarah
4. Nancy
5. Ann
6. Catherine
7. Margaret
8. Jane
9. Susan
10. Hannah

And for boys, the most popular names were:

1. John
2. William
3. James
4. Thomas
5. George
6. Joseph
7. Samuel
8. Henry
9. David
10. Daniel

Thus, while we can be fairly confident that William Smith


and Mary Brown were common combinations at the time
of the first census, census historians have identified a few
other name combinations that are … more unique. Those
unusual names included Anguish Lemmon, Mercy
Pepper, Pleasant Basket, Cutlip Hoof, Hardy Baptist,
Truelove Sparks, Snow Frost, Mourning Chestnut, Boston
Frog, Jedediah Brickhouse, Hannah Petticoat and
Hannah Cheese, Ruth Shaves, Christy Forgot, Joseph
Came, Joseph Rodeback, Agreen Crabtree, River Jordan,
Booze Still, Comfort Clock, Sharp Blount, Sarah Simpers,
Barbary Staggers, and Noble Gun.

—Sandie Angulo Chen

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