Is your surname among the most popular in Lancashire?

Smith, Taylor, and Jones have topped the charts as Lancashire's most common surnames for more than 130 years.

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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Jones 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