Ways to use this list
- Finish a character: you have the first name already, so spin a surname that hints at a family history, like a Welsh grandmother or a Ghanaian father.
- History and geography lessons: spin a surname, find its country on a map, then discuss how Smith and Schmidt both began as the job of a metalworker.
- Family tree projects: show pupils how surnames come from jobs, places and parents' names, using the origins listed under the picker.
- Fantasy campaigns: the Fantasy surnames button gives noble houses and village families names like Duskwhistle and Stormcairn in one spin.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (58 entries)
- Smith โ English
- Jones โ Welsh
- Taylor โ English
- Evans โ Welsh
- Murphy โ Irish
- O'Brien โ Irish
- Campbell โ Scottish
- MacLeod โ Scottish
- Johnson โ English
- Williams โ Welsh
- Brown โ English and Scottish
- Miller โ English
- Garcia โ Spanish
- Rodriguez โ Spanish
- Martinez โ Spanish
- Lopez โ Spanish
- Silva โ Portuguese
- Ferreira โ Portuguese
- Rossi โ Italian
- Bianchi โ Italian
- Dubois โ French
- Moreau โ French
- Mรผller โ German
- Schmidt โ German
- De Vries โ Dutch
- Jansen โ Dutch
- Andersson โ Swedish
- Hansen โ Danish and Norwegian
- Virtanen โ Finnish
- Kowalski โ Polish
- Novรกk โ Czech
- Kovรกcs โ Hungarian
- Popescu โ Romanian
- Ivanov โ Russian
- Shevchenko โ Ukrainian
- Papadopoulos โ Greek
- Yฤฑlmaz โ Turkish
- Haddad โ Arabic
- Hosseini โ Iranian
- Khan โ South Asian, from a Turkic and Mongol title
- Patel โ Indian (Gujarati)
- Reddy โ Indian (Telugu)
- Iyer โ Indian (Tamil)
- Rahman โ Bangladeshi
- Wang โ Chinese
- Chen โ Chinese
- Kim โ Korean
- Park โ Korean
- Nguyen โ Vietnamese
- Reyes โ Filipino and Spanish
- Sato โ Japanese
- Tanaka โ Japanese
- Okafor โ Nigerian (Igbo)
- Adeyemi โ Nigerian (Yoruba)
- Mensah โ Ghanaian
- Mwangi โ Kenyan (Kikuyu)
- Dlamini โ South African and Swazi
- Banda โ Malawian and Zambian
Questions people ask
What is the most common surname in the world?
Wang and Li are usually listed first, each carried by close to 100 million people in China. Smith leads in the US, the UK and Australia, and around four in ten people in Vietnam are called Nguyen.
What do the countries next to each surname mean?
They show where a name is most strongly rooted, not where everyone with it lives today. Names travel: a Garcia may live in Texas, a Patel in Leicester and a Murphy in Melbourne.
Where do English surnames come from?
Most began as a job (Smith, Miller, Baker), a place (Hill, Wood), a nickname (Brown, for brown hair) or a father's name: Johnson simply meant "son of John".
Are the fantasy surnames taken from books or games?
No. Names such as Fernhallow and Quillfeather were made up for this page by joining old English-sounding parts, so they suit any fantasy world without belonging to one.