These Are The 100 Most Common Surnames In Yorkshire

We all know the famous names of Yorkshire from Sean Bean, Jeremy Clarkson, Jessica Enis, Dame Judy Dench and Patrick Stewart. But, have you ever wondered about your heritage?

Well, thanks to the new list made by the online genealogy portal Forebears, you can see the county’s 100 most common surnames just to get a measure of how common you really are.

The top 3 names won’t be a surprise to most – with Smith, Taylor and Wilson taking the top spots. But naturally, it started to make us wonder more about the history of surnames.

Apparently, around 1066 surnames were introduced into England by Norman barons, and gradually spread across the nation forming some of the names we know well already.

In England alone, there are around 45,000 different surnames – each with its own history behind it. Sources for surnames are endless, but some common sources where names are derived are nicknames, physical attributes, counties, trades, heraldic charges, and almost every object known to mankind.

We’ve looked at a few of the top 3 most common Yorkshire ones.

Smith

There are over 46,000 Smiths in Yorkshire, and the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon smitan, meaning “to smite or strike.” It comes from an occupational name for a man who works with metal.

Taylor

There are over 22,000 Taylors in God’s Own Country, and similar to Smith it has an occupational derivative. The English family name means “cutter of cloth” – but is derived from the old French word tailleor meaning “tailor”.