I believe these are the most common surnames in English. Why Smith, Johnson(or Jones, which I believe is a contraction of Johnson). Were these families especially prolific or was it that John was a very popular name, resulting in many “John’s sons.” Every village had a smith? What’s the straight dope?
Not a complete explanation, but a hint perhaps…
I am reminded of a pub on the coast at Plymouth, England (the site from which the Mayflower and Co. departed). The pub now sits on what was, back in the day, the steps of the pier they boarded from. There is a sign on the wall with the names of the passengers of the Mayflower. (Only the men of course.) More than half were John’s, and there were a good number of Smith’s aboard as well.
And every Smith had a Johnson?
I’m terrible!
Smith and Johnson are the most common last names in the US. In the UK, the most common last names are Smith, Jones, and Williams.
clairobscure had a very good explanation of why “Smith” was so common a name in a recent thread.
“Firstly, there was a smith in essentially every village. Secondly, there was generally only one. So, you could pinpoint precisely the individual and this job’s name has often be used as an “individualizing” name, later becoming a family name. And the fact that generally, at these times, a job was passed from father to son made even more likely that it would stuck as a family name. On the other hand, you won’t find many “Mr Glassmaker”, because such a job would have been very rare at the first place, nor many “Mr Farmer”, because since the wide majority of the population was farming, it wouldn’t have helped identifying a given person.”
“Johnson” is not a terribly common name in Britain–not surprisingly, since it’s ultimately a Scandinavian name. (Pretty much all names ending in “son” or “sen” are Scandinavian.) It became the second most common name in the US due to Scandinavian immigration.
The more common way to form a “son of” construction in British name-making is to simply add an “s” to the parents name. E.g. Roger Williams would mean that Roger was the son of William. Hence the last names “Williams,” “Rogers,” etc. When it comes to “John,” you either get “Johns”–which does exist as a British last name–or you munge it up a little and end up with “Jones.”
Back in the late Middle Ages, when last names became permanent in Britain, “William,” “John,” and “Roger” were all extremely common first name. So that’s why there’s a lot more people surnamed Williams, Jones, and Rogers around today than Ingulfs or Thorvalds.
Lots of Johnsons in the US are of English descent, but also lots (like me) are of Swedish descent. You’ve got a common name in two huge groups of immigrants making it a sort of super-name which crushes those of you with girlie surnames.
Johnson Power!