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What Does Your Last Name Mean?

Obviously, names have been around for a long while and have made it far easier for all of us to effectively address individuals rather than pointing at people and saying ‘hey you!’. But how long have names been around?


  • Dec 09 2019
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  • 14506 Views

Obviously, names have been around for a long while and have made it far easier for all of us to effectively address individuals rather than pointing at people and saying ‘hey you!’. But how long have names been around?

Well I’m glad you asked! It seems that the very first recorded instance of a name was found between 3,200-3,100 BC and belonged to a slave owner, Gal-Sal, and his two slaves Enpap-x and Sukkalgir


We can’t quite see Enpap-x making a comeback in the popular names category, however, popular names do come and go and if the age of big data collection has shown us anything, it’s that the old adage of fashion is a circle is true with retro names from decades ago forecast to become popular again (although we find it a bit unlikely that anyone’s going to be named Kermit in the near future that isn’t a frog!).

Needless to say, there’s more to a name than just the first name, there’s also surnames to help further distinguish us in a sea of John’s and Olivia’s! Whilst there are many surnames throughout the world, America has an interesting makeup of last names according to new research.

Looking at last names throughout the country, Smith is the most common name in America with a total of 2.4 million Americans having this surname and it being the most prominent surname in 27 states. Smith itself is a trade name and is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘smitan’ which means ‘to smite or strike’. Chances are if you have the surname smith, someone in your family used to be a blacksmith or work with metal.

Coming in second we have Johnson with 1.9 million Americans named Johnson and this surname being the most popular in 13 states. The surname Johnson is a patronym of the given name John, literally meaning "son of John". 


Looking at these two most popular surnames we are positive there’s a John Smith joke in there somewhere, but I digress! 


What’s clear is that names come and go, with fad names peaking and then falling out of favor. If you’re a soon to be parent reading this and thinking about what to name your child, my advice would be to stick to the tried and true classics, after all, fad names come and go but the classics are always classy and I’m sure your future child will be grateful! 


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