See also
This article includes a language-related list of lists.
Lists of the most common surnames by continent:
Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the Western tradition in which surnames are written last. Around 2,000 Han Chinese surnames are currently in use, but the great proportion of Han Chinese people use only a relatively small number of these surnames; 19 surnames are used by around half of the Han Chinese people, while 100 surnames are used by around 87% of the population. A report in 2019 gives the most common Chinese surnames as Wang and Li, each shared by over 100 million people in China. The remaining eight of the top ten most common Chinese surnames are Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou.
Zhang ( ) is the third most common surname in China and Taiwan, and it is one of the most common surnames in the world. Zhang is the pinyin romanization of the very common Chinese surname written 张 in simplified characters and 張 in traditional characters. It is spoken in the first tone: Zhāng. It is a surname that exists in many languages and cultures, corresponding to the surname 'Archer' in English for example. In the Wade-Giles system of romanization, it is romanized as "Chang", which is commonly used in Taiwan; "Cheung" is commonly used in Hong Kong as a romanization.
Lee is a common surname in English-speaking countries.
Smith is an occupational surname originating in England. It is the most prevalent surname in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and the fifth most common surname in the Republic of Ireland. In the United States, the surname Smith is particularly prevalent among those of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, but is also a common surname among African-Americans, which can be attributed either to African slaves having been given the surname of their masters, or to being an occupational name, as some southern African-Americans took this surname to reflect their or their father's trade. 2,442,977 Americans shared the surname Smith at the time of the 2010 census, and more than 500,000 people shared it in the United Kingdom as of 2006. At the turn of the 20th century, the surname was sufficiently prevalent in England to have prompted the statement: "Common to every village in England, north, south, east, and west"; and sufficiently common on the (European) continent to be "common in most countries of Europe".
Chang is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 常 (Cháng). It was listed 80th among the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames.
He or Ho is the romanized transliteration of several Chinese family names. According to a 2012 survey, 14 million people had Hé listed as their surname, making it the 17th most common surname in Mainland China, a spot it retained in 2019. Hé was listed as the 21st most common surname in the Hundred Family Surnames, contained in the verse 何呂施張. Other less common family names that are romanized as He include 河, 佫, 赫, and 和.
Quán is the Pinyin romanization of the Chinese family names 權/权 and 全, as well as a customary spelling of 關. All written forms of the name are rare enough that they do not appear in the list of the 100 most common Chinese surnames.
Lei is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname 雷 (Léi). It is the 69th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.
Tan is a common Chinese surname 譚, and is considered the 56th most common.
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge" and derives from two early biblical figures, primary among them Daniel from the Book of Daniel. It is a common given name for males and also used as a surname, regularly the basis for various derived given names and surnames.
Wei (魏) is the English spelling of a Chinese surname.
Su is the pinyin romanization of the common Chinese surname written 苏 in simplified characters and 蘇 traditionally.
Harris is a surname predominantly originating in England and Wales.
Heritable family names were generally adopted rather late within Scandinavia. Nobility were the first to take names that would be passed on from one generation to the next. Later, clergy, artisans and merchants in cities took heritable names. Family names (surnames) were still used together with primary patronyms, which were used by all social classes. This meant that most families until modern times did not have surnames. Scandinavian patronyms were generally derived from the father's given name with the addition of a suffix meaning 'son' or 'daughter' or by occupation like Møller - naming tradition remained commonly used throughout the Scandinavian countries during the time of surname formation. Forms of the patronymic suffixes include: -son, -sen, -fen, -søn, -ler, -zen, -zon/zoon, and -sson,'datter'.
Chai is a Chinese surname. The same surname is Sài in Vietnamese, and Si in Korean.
Li or Lee is a common Chinese surname, it is the 4th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames. Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million in Asia. It is the second-most common surname in China as of 2018, the second-most common surname in Hong Kong, the most common surname in Macau and the 5th most common surname in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Lee". The surname is pronounced as in Cantonese, Lí (poj) in Taiwanese Hokkien, but is often spelled as "Lee" in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and many overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as "Lei". In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as "Lie". The common Korean surname, "Lee", and the Vietnamese surname, "Lý", are both derived from Li and written with the same Chinese character (李). The character also means "plum" or "plum tree".