England’s Most Common Surnames

With England now being such an international country, names from many ethnicities can be found. But when Henry Brougham Guppy published his seminal work on British names in 1890 (Homes of Family Names in Great Britain), the names had been little affected by foreign influx.

At that time, he discovered a little more than a dozen English names that were in use throughout the land. To qualify for this distinction, a name had to be used in at least 40 of England’s old counties. Here’s the list:

Allen

Brown

Clarke

Cook

Cooke

Hall

Harris

Johnson

Martin

Robinson

Smith

Taylor

Turner

White

Wilson

Wright