List_of_most_common_surnames_in_Europe

List of most common surnames in European countries

List of most common surnames in European countries

Common surnames in Europe


This is a list of the most common surnames in Europe, sorted by country.

Albania

At the moment, listings for the most common names are unavailable for Albania. However the most common names include the following:

  • Common names denoting profession. Of these, religious professional names have been particularly widespread, including Hoxha (a Muslim priest, Sunni or Bektashi, with its variant Hoxhaj), Prifti (a Christian priest, Catholic or Orthodox), Shehu (a Bektashi priest) and Dervishi (Bektashi clergy). Bektashi itself is also a common surname. Ironically, Hoxha was the surname of Enver Hoxha, the leader of Communist Albania who banned all religions. There are numerous other professional names which are not as common. Begu also denotes a former ruler and also the surname(s) Gjoni or Gjonaj.
  • Common names which originated as patrinomials. Common names of this sort include Leka or Lekaj (Alex), Gjoni or Gjonaj (John), Murati (Murad), Mehmeti (Mehmed), Hysi (typically short for Hussein), Gjika/Gjoka (short for Jacob, cf Jake), Marku (Mark), Kola/Kolla/Nikolla (Nicholas), Hasani (Hassan), Kristi/Kristo, Luka (Lucas), Brahimi (Abraham, from Turkish), Sinani, Thanasi (Athanasius), Halili (Halil), and Abazi (Abbas). Albanians of Muslim background often bear Christian last names (denoting former Christian origin), and those with Christian often bear Muslim last names (which many in Northern regions adopted thinking it would lead to better treatment from the Ottoman authorities), although the holders of Bektashi surnames are usually actually of Bektashi background
  • Common names which originated as place names. May denote former residence, or, if the bearer has a Muslim patrilineal background, that their ancestors ruled the place. Common places used as surnames include Dibra, Laci, Shkodra, Prishtina, Delvina, Koroveshi and Permeti, as well as the famous Frasheri surname of the Frasheri family. Additionally common some names indicate regional origins: Gega/Gegaj (for one of Gheg origin), Tosku/Toskaj (signifying Tosk origin) and Chami (for Cham origin).
  • Some common names are Northern Albanian clan names that double as place names such as Kelmendi and Shkreli. Other notable clan-origin names include Berisha, Krasniqi and Gashi. These sorts of names are very common in far Northern Albania and in Kosovo.
  • Colors: of which Kuqi (red) and Bardhi (white) are the most commonly used as surnames.
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Armenia

Source: Armenia's Voter List[1]

Austria

The forty-one most common surnames in Austria as published in 2006 are shown below beside the approximate percentage of the Austrian population sharing each surname.[2]

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Azerbaijan

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Belarus

Statistics available for the Belarusian capital of Minsk only:[4]

More information Rank, Surname in Russian ...

Belgium

Belgium is a European nation composed of three main regions: Flemish Region (Flanders), Walloon Region (Wallonia), and Brussels-Capital Region. Flanders has a Dutch-language tradition, while Wallonia has a French-language tradition. The Brussels-Capital Region is a mix of both Dutch- and French-language influences, with a large influx of foreign names. These different linguistic backgrounds are reflected in differing frequencies of surnames, as shown in the table below. On 31 December 1997 there were 316 295 different surnames in Belgium (total population: 11,521,238).

  • Note — the following table contains the ten most common surnames in each of the three federal regions as of 1 January 2021.[5][6]
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Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosniaks

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Serbs

The following names are the most common names for Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina.[7]

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Bulgaria

Feminized names included (m. Dimitrov – f. Dimitrova). Figures are from 2018 and provided by the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute.[8]

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Croatia

More information Frequency, Surname ...

Czechia

Feminized names are included (m. Novák/f. Nováková). Figures are from 2009 and provided by the Czech Ministry of the Interior.

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Denmark

Nineteen of the twenty most common Danish surnames as of 1 January 2022 are patronymic ending in Norse -sen ('son of'), the only exception being Møller (Miller).[16]

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Faroe Islands

The 20 most common surnames in the Faroe Islands as published in 2017 are shown below beside the number of people of the Faroese population sharing each surname.[17]

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Estonia

Data from 2008.[18]

Names of Estonian origin:

More information Rank, # ...

Names of Russian origin:

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Finland

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Most of the names on this list are typical examples of surnames that were adopted when modern surnames were introduced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the romantic spirit, they refer to natural features: virta 'river', koski 'rapids', mäki 'hill', järvi 'lake', saari 'island' — often with the suffix -nen added after the model of older, mainly eastern Finnish surnames such as Korhonen and Heikkinen. Hämäläinen literally means 'an inhabitant of Häme'. The suffix -nen is an adjective ending.

Most common Swedish surnames in Finland

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France

More information Rank, # ...

Georgia

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Germany

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Greece

The majority of Greek names are patronymic. There are also several names derived from professions (Samaras, Σαμαράς 'saddle maker', Papoutsis, Παπουτσής 'shoe maker'), area of (former) residence (Kritikos, Κρητικός 'from Crete', Aivaliotis, Αϊβαλιώτης 'from Ayvalık'), nicknames relating to physical or other characteristics (Kontos, Κοντός 'short', Mytaras, Μυταράς 'large-nosed', Koufos, Κουφός 'deaf') and more.

The patronymic suffix varies between dialects; thus Giannidis, Giannakos, Giannatos, Giannopoulos, Giannelis, Giannioglou all mean 'son of Giannis'.[27]

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Hungary

As of 2011, 2,095,788 individuals (21% of the population) bear the most common 20 names, and 3,347,493 individuals (33.5%) bearing the top 100 names.[28][29] 25 most common surnames in Hungary as of January 2019:[30][29]

More information Rank, Population ...

Iceland

While the vast majority of Icelanders do not use regular surnames but rather patronyms or matronyms, around 4% of Icelanders have proper surnames. See also Icelandic names.

The 20 most common surnames in the Iceland as published in 2017 are shown below beside the number of people of the Icelandic population sharing each surname.[31]

More information Rank, Surname ...

Ireland

The prevalence of some of these names is the result of more than one distinct Irish language names being represented by the same anglicised version.

More information #, Surname ...

Names starting with O' and Mac/Mc were originally patronymic. Of the names above, with the exception of Smith and Walsh, all originally began with O' or Mac/Mc but many have lost this prefix over time. Mac/Mc, meaning Son, and Ó, meaning Little (or Descendant), are used by sons born into the family. In the case of a daughter being born into the family she would use Ní/Nic, for example Ó Muireadhaigh becomes Ní Mhuireadhaigh. A woman who marries into the family and takes her husband's name uses Uí/Mic- e.g. Uí Mhuireadhaigh.[36][37]

Italy

From Mappa dei Cognomi website.[38]

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Kazakhstan

Provided here is a list of the 33 most common surnames in Kazakhstan according to the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan as of 2014.[41]

More information Rank, Cyrillic script ...

Kosovo

These statistics are based on the Kosovo Agency of Statistics report on names and surnames in Kosovo, which took place in 2017.[42]

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Latvia

Latvian surnames
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Lithuania

More information Lithuania, 2015, Rank ...

Luxembourg

Out of 236,000 entries in the EDITUS phone book:

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Malta

More information Rank, % ...

Moldova

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Montenegro

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Netherlands

The most recent complete count of surnames in the Netherlands is based on the September 2007 county registrations.

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When closely related names are combined, the top 15 are:

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* "vd" is an abbreviation which stands for all variants of "van de", "van den", or "van der"

Source: Nederlands Repertorium van Familienamen, Meertens-Instituut, 1963–2009. Data can be viewed in the Corpus of Family Names in the Netherlands See specifically De top 100 van de familienamen in Nederland (Dutch)

Names ending in -stra or -ma are usually of Frisian origin. For example, Terpstra, Bijlsma, Halsema.

Names ending in -ink or -ing are usually of Low Saxon origin. For example, Hiddink, Meyerink, Mentink.

North Macedonia

The most recent complete count of surnames is based on end of year 2022 State Statistical Office.[50]

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Macedonian surnames inflect through grammatical cases (in this case, gender). It is common for male surnames to end in -ski and -ov, while female ones end in -ska and -va.

Norway

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Poland

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Polish names which end with -ski or -cki have both male and female forms – Kamiński/Kamińska, Wielicki/Wielicka, etc. This needs to be considered when taking a count by, for instance, scanning a telephone book. Historically, -ski, cognate with English -ish and French -esque, was a particle of nobility, like German von.

Portugal

The 50 most frequent surnames in Portugal are listed below.[53][54][55] A number of these surnames may be preceded by of/from (de, d') or of the/from the (do, da, dos, das) as in de Sousa, da Costa, d'Oliveira. Those elements are not part of the surname and are not considered in an alphabetical order.

More information Order, Surname ...

Romania

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Russia

See also: Список общерусских фамилий (in Russian Wikipedia)

The 20 most common widespread Russian surnames (for males) from the European part of Russia, as calculated by Balanovskaya et al. (2005):[57]

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Those Russian surnames that end with -ov/-ev or -in/-yn are originally patronymic or metronymic possessive adjectivals with the meaning 'son of' or 'daughter/wife of' (the feminine is formed with the -a ending – Smirnova, Ivanova, etc.). In older documents such surnames were written with the word syn 'son', for example, Ivánov syn 'John's son' or Il'yín syn 'Elijah's son'; the last word was later dropped. Such names are roughly equivalent to the English or Welsh surnames Richardson or Richards.

The Russian equivalent of 'Smith', 'Jones', and 'Brown' (that is, the generic most often used surnames) are Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov, or 'Johns', 'Peters', and 'Isidores', although Sidorov is now ranked only 66th.[57]

Serbia

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Slovakia

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Note: The most common surnames in Slovakia are a mixture of Indo-European and the Ugric roots reflecting the 900-year-long coexistence of the Indo-European Slovaks and speakers of other Indo-European languages with Ugric Hungarians and the Croatians, under Hungarian assimilation pressure throughout the 19th century (see Magyarization, see History of Slovakia). In 1910 Hungarians made up one-third of the population of the present-day territory of Slovakia.[61] Hungarians are currently an 8% minority[60] in Slovakia.[62] (see Demographics of Slovakia). While ethnic Hungarians are relatively few in Slovakia, their large presence on the list of most common names reflects the intra-lingual frequency of the frequent names in Hungary.

Slovenia

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Spain

The top ten surnames cover about 20% of the population, with important geographical differences. The regional distribution of surnames within Spain was homogenized mostly through internal migrations, especially since 1950. Names typical of the old crown of Castile have become the most common all over the country. Most of the common Spanish patronymic surnames were introduced in Spain during the fifth to seventh centuries by the Visigoths.

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Source:[64] – Data from December 1999. (2004 data confirmation of top 25)

Canary Islands

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Sweden

Source: World Family Names

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List of the 10 most common names among the Sami people (compiled from one third of the Sametinget voting list 2005):[66]

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Switzerland

German-speaking cantons (1998): Source:[67]

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Surnames of the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino

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Turkey

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Source: Turkish General Directorate of Population and Citizenships[68]

Ukraine

Many of the surnames use the same root but different suffixes, or even different roots of the same meaning, depending on the part of Ukraine the person hails from.[69]

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United Kingdom

England

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Greater London

The following list is for Greater London.[71][better source needed]

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Northern Ireland

Source:[72]

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Scotland

Source:[72]

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Wales

Source:[72]

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See also

Notes

  1. The Lithuanian language has different endings for surnames for men and women. The ending of a woman's surname indicates whether she is married or not. Last names of married women end in -ienė while those of unmarried girls end in -ytė, -iūtė, -utė, -aitė.[citation needed]

References

  1. Manougian, Harout (24 August 2020). "Armenia's Entire Voter List is Available Online: Here's What It Shows". EVN Report. Archived from the original on 24 November 2022.
  2. Wiener Sprachblätter, 2006, issue 4, p. 4. "Alles Gruber in Österreich und nicht Müller wie in Deutschland" (in German). Retrieved 20 October 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. "Familienamen | Statbel". statbel.fgov.be. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  4. "Structuur van de bevolking | Statbel". statbel.fgov.be. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  5. Јањатовић, Ђорђе (1993). ПРЕЗИМЕНА СРБА У БОСНИ. ПРОСВЕТА-ТРГОВИНА" д. д. СОМБОР.
  6. "Most frequent Croatian surnames". croatian-genealogy.com. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  7. "Most frequent surnames, Census 2011". Census of Population, Households and Dwellings 2011. Zagreb: Croatian Bureau of Statistics. December 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  8. "Names and surnames in Republic of Croatia". Census of Population, Households and Dwellings 2011. Zagreb: Croatian Bureau of Statistics. December 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  9. "What's in a name?". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  10. Bowne, Heather (16 January 2005). "What's in a name?". ABC of Czech. Český rozhlas 7 – Radio Praha. Retrieved 28 January 2008. The most common surname in the Czech Republic is Novák, which is closest to the English "Newman".
  11. "Navne i hele befolkningen". dst.dk (in Danish). Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  12. Føroya, Hagstova. "Eftirnøvn (2001–2017)" (in Faroese). Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  13. "Top 500: Eesti kõige levinumad perekonnanimed". Eesti Ekspress (in Estonian). 25 April 2008. Archived from the original on 29 July 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  14. Population Register Centre, 13 July 2015. Percentages are based on the population of Finland on 16 July 2015.
  15. "Les noms de famille les plus portés France" (in French). linternaute.com. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  16. Georgian Civil Registry Agency.
  17. Forebears.io. "Most Common Last Names in Germany". forebears.io/. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  18. Rank and percentage of population from: Kunze, Konrad (2004). Namenkunde, Vor- und Familiennamen im deutschen Sprachgebiet, 4th edn (series: dtv-Atlas). München, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 255 pp.
  19. Heterograph: Schmitt. In southernmost Germany, the alternative form 'Schmid' is the most common. All forms taken collectively would be #1 surname. The standard German form for 'blacksmith' is 'Schmied'.
  20. Heterographs: Meier, which is common to the north, like Meyer, and Mayer, which is commoner to the south. All forms taken collectively would be #2 surname
  21. Triandafilidis, Manolis (1995). Τα οικογενειακά μας ονόματα (Our Family Names). Athens: Manolis Triandafilidis Foundation. p. 288. ISBN 9789602310106.
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  23. Farkas, Tamás. "Régi magyar családnevek névvégmutató szótára (Reverse dictionary of historical Hungarian family names)" (PDF). ELTE Magyar Nyelvtudományi és Finnugor Intézet, Magyar Nyelvtudományi Társaság (Budapest University, Faculty of Hungarian Philology and Finno-Ugric Institute, Hungarian Philology Association), Budapest, 2009.
  24. "Születési családnevek 2019". Közigazgatási és Elektronikus Közszolgáltatások Központi Hivatala. Archived from the original (XLSX) on 17 September 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  25. Íslands, Hagstofa. "Mannanöfn og nafngiftir á Íslandi" (PDF) (in Icelandic). Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  26. The Top 500 Irish & British Surnames, The Observer, 15 April 2007.
  27. "L'Italia dei Cognomi" (in Italian). mappadeicognomi.it. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  28. Forebears.io. "Most Common Last Names in Italy". forebears.io/. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  29. Maxia, Mauro (18 November 2019). "Le origini dei cognomi sardi, il primo Sanna aveva i canini affilati come zanne" [The origins of Sardinian surnames, the first Sanna had fang-like canine teeth]. La Nuova Sardegna (in Italian). Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  30. Agjencia e Statistikave të Kosovës, 2017, p. 12. "Names and Surnames in Kosovo" (PDF). Retrieved 20 October 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. "Latvians". li.lv. 2006. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  32. Latvian Surname Project http://www.celmina.com/surnames
  33. "Populiariausi gyventojų vardai ir Labiausiai paplitusiosios gyventojų pavardės" (in Lithuanian). stat.gov.lt. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  34. Zammit, Silvan (7 January 2013). "Census of Population and Housing 2011: A focus on Surnames" (PDF). National Statistics Office – Malta. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  35. CASATA.MD: NUME IN REPUBLICA MOLDOVA
  36. Ministry of Interior (Poland). Statystyka najpopularniejszych nazwisk występujących w Polsce in 2009 Archived 28 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine (The most popular surnames in Poland in 2009). Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  37. Os 100 Apelidos mais frequentes da População Portuguesa Archived 28 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine Perhaps the numbers in this reference are for the population of Portuguese-speaking countries. The total number of people with these common names (10.4 million) already exceeds the population of Portugal in 2014 (10.3 million).
  38. Балановская Е. В.; Балановский О. П. (2007). Русский генофонд на Русской равнине (in Russian). Moscow. pp. 165–216. ISBN 978-5-87140-267-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) See also the web version Archived 9 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine of the list.
  39. "Najčastejšie priezviská na Slovensku". Geni.sk. 10 January 2010. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  40. Votruba, Martin. "Most Common Slovak Last Names". Slovak Studies Program. University of Pittsburgh.
  41. Károly Kocsis (DSc, University of Miskolc) – Zsolt Bottlik (PhD, Budapest University) – Patrik Tátrai: Etnikai térfolyamatok a Kárpát-medence határon túli régióiban, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) – Földrajtudományi Kutatóintézet (Academy of Geographical Studies); Budapest; 2006.; ISBN 963-9545-10-4, CD Atlas
  42. Gyurgyík, László. "An analysis – in a complex approach – of assimilation processes among the Hungarians of Slovakia". Nyelvhatárok, etnikai kontaktuszónák a Kárpát-medence három régiójában. MTA Etnikai-nemzeti Kisebbségkutató Intézet (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities).
  43. "Most frequent family names". stat.si. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  44. "Los 40 apellidos mas comunes en España (www.ociototal.com)". Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  45. "Vanligaste samiska efternamnet utsett". Sveriges Radio (in Swedish). 18 November 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  46. "Most Popular Surnames, 2020" (PDF). Turkish General Directorate of Population and Citizenships. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 June 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  47. https://sites.google.com/site/uaname/popularnist-prizvis/misca-1---10000 Популярні призвища та імена України

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