42-581: Kowalski ( Polish pronunciation: [kɔˈvalskʲi] ; feminine: Kowalska , plural: Kowalscy ) is the second most common surname in Poland (140,471 people in 2009). Kowalski surname is derived from the word kowal , meaning " [black]smith ". " Jan Kowalski " is used as a placeholder name in Poland to mean " Average Joe ", much as "John Smith" is used in English-speaking countries (though
84-482: A 15-year-old girl named Blær (a masculine noun in Icelandic) was allowed to keep her name in a court decision that overruled an initial rejection by the naming committee . Her mother, Björk Eiðsdóttir, did not realize at the time that "Blær" was considered masculine; she had read Halldór Laxness 's novel The Fish Can Sing , which has a female character named Blær, meaning "light breeze", and decided that if she had
126-499: A Dutch-language tradition, while Wallonia has a French-language tradition. The Brussels-Capital Region is a mix of both Dutch- and French-language influences, with a large influx of foreign names. These different linguistic backgrounds are reflected in differing frequencies of surnames, as shown in the table below. On 31 December 1997 there were 316 295 different surnames in Belgium (total population: 11,521,238). The following names are
168-482: A daughter, she would name her Blær. In 2019, the laws governing names were changed. First names are no longer restricted by gender. Moreover, Icelanders who are officially registered as nonbinary are permitted to use the patro/matronymic suffix -bur ("child of") instead of -son or -dóttir . A man named Jón Einarsson has a son named Ólafur . Ólafur's last name will not be Einarsson like his father's; it will be Jónsson , indicating that Ólafur
210-543: A middle name and conversational honorific. In Iceland, listings such as the telephone directory are alphabetised by first name rather than surname. To reduce ambiguity, the directory also lists professions. Icelanders formally address others by their first names. By way of example, the former prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir would not be introduced as 'Ms Sigurðardóttir' but by either her first name or her full name, and usually addressed by her first name only. Icelandic singer Björk goes by her first name (her full name
252-513: A more direct translation would be "John Smithson"). List of most common surnames in Europe This article contains lists of the most common surnames in most of the countries of Europe , including Armenia , Kosovo , and five transcontinental countries but excluding five European microstates . Countries are arranged in alphabetical order . At the moment, listings for the most common names are unavailable for Albania. However
294-436: Is Björk Guðmundsdóttir). Björk is how any Icelander would address her, whether formally or casually. In the case of two people in the same group having the same given name, perhaps one named Jón Stefánsson and the other Jón Þorláksson, one could address Jón Stefánsson as "Jón Stefáns" and Jón Þorláksson as "Jón Þorláks". When someone has a conversation with two such people at the same time, "son" need not be used; in that case,
336-428: Is common for male surnames to end in -ski and -ov, while female ones end in -ska and -va. Polish names which end with -ski or -cki or -dzki have both male and female forms – Kamiński/Kamińska, Wielicki/Wielicka, Zawadzki/Zawadzka etc. This needs to be considered when taking a count by, for instance, scanning a telephone book. Historically, -ski , -cki and -dzki , cognate with English -ish and French -esque ,
378-517: Is the son of Jón (Jóns + son). The same practice is used for daughters. Jón Einarsson's daughter Sigríður ' s last name is not Einarsson but Jónsdóttir . Again, the name means "Jón's daughter" (Jóns + dóttir). In some cases, a person's surname is derived from their parent's second given name instead of the first. For example, if Jón is the son of Hjálmar Arnar Vilhjálmsson, he may either be named Jón Hjálmarsson (Jón, son of Hjálmar) or Jón Arnarsson (Jón, son of Arnar). The reason for this may be that
420-809: Is thus not based on family names (although some people do have family names and might use both systems). Generally, a person's last name indicates the first name of their father (patronymic) or in some cases mother (matronymic) in the genitive , followed by -son ("son") or -dóttir ("daughter"). Some family names exist in Iceland, most commonly adaptations from last names Icelanders adopted when living abroad, usually in Denmark. Notable Icelanders with inherited family names include former prime minister Geir Haarde , football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen , entrepreneur Magnús Scheving , film director Baltasar Kormákur Samper , and actress Anita Briem . Before 1925, it
462-700: The Corpus of Family Names in the Netherlands See specifically De top 100 van de familienamen in Nederland (Dutch) Names ending in -stra or -ma are usually of Frisian origin. For example, Terpstra , Bijlsma , Halsema . Names ending in -ink or -ing are usually of Low Saxon origin. For example, Hiddink , Meyerink , Mentink. The most recent complete count of surnames is based on end of year 2022 State Statistical Office. Macedonian surnames inflect through grammatical cases (in this case, gender). It
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#1732791166815504-511: The Croatians , under Hungarian assimilation pressure throughout the 19th century (see Magyarization , see History of Slovakia ). In 1910 Hungarians made up one-third of the population of the present-day territory of Slovakia. Hungarians are currently an 8% minority in Slovakia. (see Demographics of Slovakia ). While ethnic Hungarians are relatively few in Slovakia, their large presence on
546-730: The Icelandic Naming Committee . The criterion for acceptance is whether a name can easily be incorporated into the Icelandic language. With some exceptions, it must contain only letters found in the Icelandic alphabet (including þ and ð ), and it must be possible to decline the name according to the language's grammatical case system, which in practice means that a genitive form can be constructed in accordance with Icelandic rules. Names considered to be gender-nonconforming were historically not allowed, but in 2013,
588-501: The Icelandic sagas . The vast majority of Icelandic last names carry the name of the father, but occasionally the mother's name is used: e.g. if the child or mother wishes to end social ties with the father. Some women use it as a social statement while others simply choose it as a matter of style. In all of these cases, the convention is the same: Ólafur, the son of Bryndís, will have the full name Ólafur Bryndísarson ("son of Bryndís"). Some well-known Icelanders with matronymic names are
630-552: The British media and commentators. The TV personality Magnus Magnusson acquired his repetitive name when his parents adopted British naming conventions (and Magnus's father's patronymic) during World War II, Magnus having been named at birth Magnús Sigursteinsson. Expatriate Icelanders or people of Icelandic descent who live in foreign countries, such as the significant Icelandic community in Manitoba , Canada, usually abandon
672-558: The Italian-speaking canton of Ticino Source: Turkish General Directorate of Population and Citizenships Many of the surnames use the same root but different suffixes, or even different roots of the same meaning, depending on the part of Ukraine the person hails from. The following list is for Greater London . Source: Icelandic name Icelandic names are names used by people from Iceland . Icelandic surnames are different from most other naming systems in
714-815: The Kosovo Agency of Statistics report on names and surnames in Kosovo, which took place in 2017. Out of 236,000 entries in the EDITUS phone book: The most recent complete count of surnames in the Netherlands is based on the September 2007 county registrations. When closely related names are combined, the top 15 are: * "vd" is an abbreviation which stands for all variants of "van de", "van den", or "van der" Source: Nederlands Repertorium van Familienamen , Meertens-Instituut, 1963–2009. Data can be viewed in
756-542: The Western tradition of giving a child their father's last name , usually a collective family name), and Bjarkardóttir , a conventional Icelandic matronymic. A gender autonomy act the Icelandic Parliament approved in 2019 allows people who register their gender as neutral (i.e., non-binary) to use bur , a poetic word for "son", to be repurposed as a neuter suffix instead of son or dóttir . Unlike
798-494: The adoption of new family names. Some common arguments against using family names were that they were not authentically "Icelandic"; that the usage of -son in family names made it unclear whether the name was a family name or patronymic; and that low-class people could adopt the family names of well-known upper-class families. Some common arguments for using family names were that they made it easier to trace lineages and to distinguish individuals (a problem in mid-19th century Iceland
840-621: The children in this example would be Ólafur Bryndísarson and Katrín Bryndísardóttir. Patronymics thus have the formula (genitive case of father's name, usually adding -s , or if the name ends in -i , it will change to -a ) + son/dóttir/bur , while matronymics are (genitive case of mother's name, often -ar , or if the name ends in -a , it will change to -u ) + son/dóttir/bur . The Icelandic naming system occasionally causes problems for families travelling abroad, especially with young children, since non-Icelandic immigration staff (apart from those of other Nordic countries) are usually unfamiliar with
882-649: The country. Most of the common Spanish patronymic surnames were introduced in Spain during the fifth to seventh centuries by the Visigoths . Source: – Data from December 1999. ( 2004 data confirmation of top 25 ) Source: World Family Names List of the 10 most common names among the Sami people (compiled from one third of the Sametinget voting list 2005): German-speaking cantons (1998): Source: Surnames of
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#1732791166815924-562: The family. In the case of a daughter being born into the family she would use Ní/Nic, for example Ó Muireadhaigh becomes Ní Mhuireadhaigh. A woman who marries into the family and takes her husband's name uses Uí/Mic- e.g. Uí Mhuireadhaigh. From Mappa dei Cognomi website. Provided here is a list of the 33 most common surnames in Kazakhstan according to the Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan as of 2014. These statistics are based on
966-588: The film's plot. Some people have both a matronymic and a patronymic, such as Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson ("the son of Bergþóra and Eggert"), the mayor of Reykjavík since 2014. Another example is the girl Blær mentioned above: her full name is Blær Bjarkardóttir Rúnarsdóttir ("the daughter of Björk and Rúnar "). Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk had a daughter in 2002 with American contemporary artist and filmmaker Matthew Barney . The pair named her Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, giving her two last names of different origin: Barney , her father's last name ( following
1008-472: The football player Heiðar Helguson ("Helga's son"), the novelist Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir ("Minerva's daughter"), and the medieval poet Eilífr Goðrúnarson ("Goðrún's son"). In the Icelandic film Bjarnfreðarson the title character's name is the subject of some mockery for his having a matronymic – as Bjarnfreður's son – rather than a patronymic. In the film this is connected to the mother's radical feminism and shame over his paternity, which are part of
1050-525: The generic most often used surnames) are Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov , or 'Johns', 'Peters', and ' Isidores ', although Sidorov is now ranked only 66th. Note: The most common surnames in Slovakia are a mixture of Indo-European and the Ugric roots reflecting the 900-year-long coexistence of the Indo-European Slovaks and speakers of other Indo-European languages with Ugric Hungarians and
1092-518: The genitive form of the father's name could be used like a nickname, although it is just as common in such cases to refer to people by their middle names (having a middle name being nowadays the general rule for people with a common name like 'Jón'). Because the vast majority of Icelanders use patronymics, a family will normally have a variety of last names: the children of (married or unmarried) parents Jón Einarsson and Bryndís Atladóttir could be named Ólafur Jónsson and Katrín Jónsdóttir. With matronymics,
1134-1072: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the romantic spirit, they refer to natural features: virta 'river', koski 'rapids', mäki 'hill', järvi 'lake', saari 'island' — often with the suffix -nen added after the model of older, mainly eastern Finnish surnames such as Korhonen and Heikkinen. Hämäläinen literally means 'an inhabitant of Häme '. The suffix -nen is an adjective ending. The majority of Greek names are patronymic. There are also several names derived from professions ( Samaras , Σαμαράς 'saddle maker', Papoutsis , Παπουτσής 'shoe maker'), area of (former) residence ( Kritikos , Κρητικός 'from Crete ', Aivaliotis , Αϊβαλιώτης 'from Ayvalık '), nicknames relating to physical or other characteristics ( Kontos , Κοντός 'short', Mytaras , Μυταράς 'large-nosed', Koufos , Κουφός 'deaf') and more. The patronymic suffix varies between dialects; thus Giannidis, Giannakos, Giannatos, Giannopoulos, Giannelis, Giannioglou all mean 'son of Giannis'. As of 2011, 2,095,788 individuals (21% of
1176-463: The list of most common names reflects the intra-lingual frequency of the frequent names in Hungary . The top ten surnames cover about 20% of the population, with important geographical differences. The regional distribution of surnames within Spain was homogenized mostly through internal migrations, especially since 1950. Names typical of the old crown of Castile have become the most common all over
1218-520: The meaning 'son of' or 'daughter/wife of' (the feminine is formed with the -a ending – Smirnov a , Ivanov a , etc.). In older documents such surnames were written with the word syn 'son', for example, Ivánov syn 'John's son' or Il'yín syn 'Elijah's son'; the last word was later dropped. Such names are roughly equivalent to the English or Welsh surnames Richardson or Richards . The Russian equivalent of 'Smith', 'Jones', and 'Brown' (that is,
1260-509: The modern Western world in that they are patronymic or occasionally matronymic : they indicate the father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage. Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Denmark , Norway , and Sweden . Unlike these countries, Icelanders have continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used in most of Northern Europe. The Icelandic system
1302-732: The most common names for Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina . Feminized names included (m. Dimitrov – f. Dimitrova). Figures are from 2018 and provided by the Bulgarian National Statistics Institute. Feminized names are included (m. Novák /f. Nováková ). Figures are from 2009 and provided by the Czech Ministry of the Interior. Nineteen of the twenty most common Danish surnames as of 1 January 2022 are patronymic ending in Norse -sen ('son of'),
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1344-619: The most common names include the following: The forty-one most common surnames in Austria as published in 2006 are shown below beside the approximate percentage of the Austrian population sharing each surname. Statistics available for the Belarusian capital of Minsk only: Belgium is a European nation composed of three main regions: Flemish Region (Flanders), Walloon Region (Wallonia), and Brussels-Capital Region . Flanders has
1386-515: The number of people of the Icelandic population sharing each surname. The prevalence of some of these names is the result of more than one distinct Irish language names being represented by the same anglicised version. Names starting with O' and Mac/Mc were originally patronymic . Of the names above, with the exception of Smith and Walsh, all originally began with O' or Mac/Mc but many have lost this prefix over time. Mac/Mc, meaning Son, and Ó, meaning Little (or Descendant), are used by sons born into
1428-524: The only exception being Møller (Miller). The 20 most common surnames in the Faroe Islands as published in 2017 are shown below beside the number of people of the Faroese population sharing each surname. Data from 2008. Names of Estonian origin: Names of Russian origin: Most of the names on this list are typical examples of surnames that were adopted when modern surnames were introduced in
1470-516: The other Nordic countries, Iceland never formalized a system of family names. A growing number of Icelanders—primarily those who had studied abroad—began to adopt family names in the second half of the 19th century. In 1855, there were 108 family names. In 1910 there were 297. In 1913, the Althing legalized the adoption of family names. Icelanders who had family names tended to be upper-class and serve as government officials. In 1925, Althing banned
1512-625: The parent prefers to be called by the second given name instead of the first; this is fairly common. It may also be that the parent's second name seems to fit the child's first name better. In cases where two people in the same social circle bear the same first name and the same father's name, they have traditionally been distinguished by their paternal grandfather's name (avonymic), e.g. Jón Þórsson Bjarnasonar (Jón, son of Þór, son of Bjarni) and Jón Þórsson Hallssonar (Jón, son of Þór, son of Hallur). This practice has become less common (the use of middle names having replaced it), but features conspicuously in
1554-488: The population) bear the most common 20 names, and 3,347,493 individuals (33.5%) bearing the top 100 names. 25 most common surnames in Hungary as of January 2019: While the vast majority of Icelanders do not use regular surnames but rather patronyms or matronyms, around 4% of Icelanders have proper surnames. See also Icelandic names . The 20 most common surnames in the Iceland as published in 2017 are shown below beside
1596-472: The practice and therefore expect children to have the same last names as that of their parents. Icelandic footballers who work abroad similarly are called by their patronymics, even though that is improper from an Icelandic standpoint. Aron Gunnarsson , for example, wore the name "Gunnarsson" on the back of his shirt in the Premier League before his move to Al-Arabi , and was referred to as such by
1638-428: The traditional Icelandic naming system. In most cases, they adopt the naming convention of their country of residence—most commonly by retaining the patronymic of their first ancestor to immigrate to the new country as a permanent family surname, much as other Nordic immigrants did before surnames became fully established in their own countries. Alternatively, a permanent family surname may sometimes be chosen to represent
1680-712: Was a particle of nobility, like German von . The 50 most frequent surnames in Portugal are listed below. A number of these surnames may be preceded by of/from ( de , d' ) or of the/from the ( do , da , dos , das ) as in de Sousa , da Costa , d'Oliveira . Those elements are not part of the surname and are not considered in an alphabetical order. The most common surnames in Russia, as calculated by Yumaguzin and Vinnik (2019): Those Russian surnames that end with - ov /- ev or - in /- yn are originally patronymic or metronymic possessive adjectivals with
1722-458: Was legal to adopt new family names; one Icelander to do so was the Nobel Prize -winning author Halldór Laxness , while another author, Einar Hjörleifsson , and his brothers chose the family name "Kvaran". Since 1925, it has been illegal for Icelanders to adopt a family name unless they have a right to do so through inheritance. First names not previously used in Iceland must be approved by
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1764-401: Was that there were so many people named Jón—in fact, one in six Icelandic males were named Jón at the time) and that Iceland ought to follow the lead of its Nordic neighbours. In Russia , where name-patronyms of similar style were historically used (such as Ivan Petrovich which means Ivan, the son of Peter ), the much larger population necessitated family names, relegating the patronymic to
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