Introduction to American surnames

1. The top ten surnames in the United States are: Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller, and Day Davis, Martinson, Anderson and Wilson. Smith ranks first, with more than 2 million people in the United States having this surname.

2. Because the United States is a complex post-immigration country, the origins of surnames also have their own reasons. For example, the first-ranked surname Smith comes from the ancestor's occupation - blacksmith. The second-ranked Johnson comes from the name of the previous generation, such as John {Johnson), who is the son of John.

3. According to American scholar Elsden Smith’s examination of the origins of American surnames in his book "American Surnames", there are roughly four sources of British and American surnames:

4 , taken from the name of the father (or ancestor), the surname evolved from the name of the father (or ancestor), for example, Johnson is the son of John, and Richardson is Richard. son.

5. The surname is derived from the terrain and topography. For example, Wood, Churchill, etc. This type of surname is the most common, accounting for about 40% of the total surnames in Britain and the United States.

6. It is formed from a confusing name. Someone in our ancestors had certain physical characteristics, and the family got their surname from this. For example, Brown (Brown), Black (Black), Long (Long), etc.

7. It is formed by the profession of ancestors. For example, Smith (blacksmith), Baker (baker), Fisher (fisherman), Farmer (farmer), Taylor (Taylor, a variant of Tailor, tailor), etc.

8. Of course, the above four categories all refer to the surnames of Americans of Anglo-Saxon descent. German, French, Italian, Western Russian, Japanese and Arab immigrant surnames are not among them. If they are all added Together, Smith estimates there are approximately 1.5 million different surnames across the United States. According to research by J.N.Hook, there are more than 3,000 surnames with more than 10,000 people in the United States.