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Revision as of 09:49, 9 October 2006

For other uses, see Smith.

Smith is the most common family name in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, representing more than 1 out of every 100 persons in each of these countries. It is particularly prevalent among those of English descent, but has often been taken by non-English natives or immigrants to the above countries in order to blend into the majority culture more easily.

Derivation

The name originally derives from smitan, the Anglo-Saxon term meaning to smite or strike. This term led to the name of the occupation, smith or blacksmith, because such persons must continuously strike metal with a hammer in order to shape it. Metallurgy required the development of specialist skills, and was practiced throughout the world from the Bronze Age. The use of Smith as an occupational surname dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, when inherited surnames were still unknown: Ecceard Smith of Durham County was recorded in 975. Smithers may also have derived from the Celtic word "smiterin" which meant "blown to bits". This explains the common expression "blown to smithereens".

Although the name is derived from a common occupation, many later Smiths had no connection to that occupation, but adopted or were given the surname precisely because of its commonness. For example:

  • Following the failed Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, which began around 1715, many Scots adopted the last name Smith to disguise their connection with rebellious clans. To this day, it is not uncommon for persons in English-speaking countries to adopt the surname Smith in order to maintain a secret identity, when they wish to avoid being found by someone; see also John Smith.
  • During the colonization of North America, some Native Americans took the name for use in dealing with colonists.
  • During the period of slavery in the United States, many slaves were known by the surname of their masters, or adopted those surnames upon their emancipation.

A popular urban legend holds that at the beginning of the 20th century, when many new immigrants were entering the U.S., civil servants at Ellis Island responsible for cataloguing the entry of such persons sometimes arbitrarily assigned new surnames if the immigrants' original surname was particularly lengthy, or difficult for the processor to spell or pronounce. While such claims are likely vastly exaggerated, many immigrants did choose to begin their American lives with more "American" names, particularly with Anglicized versions of their birth names. One example of such a change is that of former New York governor Alfred E. Smith, born Alfred Emanuele Ferrara (Ferrara being an Italian equivalent of Smith).

Variations

Variations of the surname, Smith, also remain very common. These include different spellings of the English term, and versions from other countries and cultures.

English variations

Smit, Smithe, Smither, Smithers, Smithies, Smithy, Smyth, and Smythe, are all common variations originating in England. Other variations focus on particular branches within the profession, particularly those based on the materials worked with – Blacksmith, from those who worked predominantly with iron, Whitesmith, from those who worked with tin (and the more obvious Tinsmith), Brownsmith, from those who worked with copper (and the more obvious Coppersmith), Silversmith, Goldsmith – and those based on the goods produced, such as Hammersmith, Naismith (referring to nails), Arrowsmith or Shoesmith (referring to horseshoes).

The patronymic practice of attaching "son" to the end of a name to indicate that the bearer is the child of the original holder has also led to the occurrences of the surnames Smithson and Smisson. Another variation, Smithfield, might derive from persons descended from an estate originally named for a Smith – although another source for this name is from natives of an area known for its "smooth field".

In English slang, a person with the surname Smith is often referred to as Smudger.

Variations from other countries and cultures

"Smith" in other languages

Other languages with different words for the occupation of smith also produced surnames based on that derivation. For example, the Latin term for smith, Faber (also the root of the word "fabricate"), is the root of last names common in several parts of Europe. For example, the Italian version, Farrier, is the root from which family names such as Fabbri, Fabris, Ferraro and Ferrari are derived.

In Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, the word for smith, gobha, is prevalent in names like Goff, Gough, Gowan and MacGabhann (anglicised as McGowan), the latter based on Mac Gobha (literally 'son of the smith'). In Wales the word smith is gof. This doesn't occur as a common surname, but the Celtic smith god Gofannon features in the medieval tales called the Mabinogi.

The Slavic languages Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian languages, Bulgarian and Russian, and in turn also Romanian and Hungarian, all similarly derive from a common root referring to the metalworking occupation, producing surnames such as Kovar, Kowal and its place name derivative Kowalski or patronymics Kowalik and Kowalczyk, and Kovač and its patronymic Kovačić, Kovačević, Koval, Kuznecov, Kuznetsov, Covaciu and Kovacs.

Other similarly derived surnames include:

Comparative note

Although Smith is the most common surname in the Western world, it is held by fewer than five-million people worldwide. It is, therefore, dwarfed by the most common surname - Li - which is held by over one hundred million people. Indeed, each of the twenty most common last names in China represents more people than all of the world's Smiths.

Famous people with the surname Smith

Surname listThis page lists people with the surname Smith.
If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.

Fictional

Smith and Jones

Jones is the second most common English language surname, and so the two are often hitched together:

References

Category: