Is your surname among the most popular in Lancashire?
The county boasts an impressive 29,164 Smiths, making up 5.8% of the country’s 500,000-strong Smith population. The name takes the number one spot for most prevalent surname in the UK, as well as in Australia and the United States, and owes its massive popularity to its non-descriptness. Originally derived from blacksmith, the name was frequently adopted by those who wanted to keep their identities secret, or anglicise their name to avoid discrimination.
The second most popular surname, Taylor, belongs to 22,401 people in Lancashire and originated in South West England from the occupation of tailor.
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Hide AdJones ranks in at third place with 16,945 people using the name, which originated in Wales and means ‘John’s son’. The first officially registered Jones in England was a woman known as Matilda Jones, who lived in Cambridgeshire 1273, and has been popular ever since.
Lancashire also boasts more than 12,000 Wrights, Wilsons, Lees, and Martins, and more than 10,000 Robinsons, Williamses, and Evanses, all of which find their origins within the UK, with the exception of Martin, which was brought to the county with the Roman conquest of Britain.
Old favourites such as Shaw, Turner and Howarth, which ranked 18th, 19th and 20th respectively in an 1881 census, have been bumped down on the list, with Shaw dropping out of the top 100 entirely. Meanwhile, the Irish surnames Murphy and Walsh and Indian surname Patel have soared into 12th, 13th, and 17th place respectively.
Most common surnames in Lancashire
1. Smith
2. Taylor
3. Jones
4. Wright
5. Wilson
6. Lee
7. Martin
8. Robinson
9. Williams
10. Evans
11. Thompson
12. Murphy
13. Walsh
14. Yates
15. Wood
16. Brown
17. Patel
18. Green
19. Johnson
20. Walker
21. Riley
22. Jackson
23. Campbell
24. Hughes
25. Mangnall
26. Atherton
27. Harriso
28. Chadwick
29. Carter
30. Hussain
31. Atkinson
32. Parker
33. Dean
34. Leigh
35. Bradshaw
36. Cook
37. Lyon
38. Hunt
39. Booth
40. Richardson
41. Roberts
42. Scott
43. Hilton
44. Cross
45. Lawson
46. Cooper
47. Marsh
48. Price
49. Hill
50. Holt
Where does your surname rank on the list of Lancashire’s most popular surnames? See the full list of over 800 names here: http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/456-lancashire/most-common-surnames.html