British surnames come from four naming traditions, English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish, and the best-known are Smith, Jones, Williams, Brown, Taylor, Wilson, Campbell and Davies. Smith is the most common surname in both Scotland and England and Wales: it topped Scotland’s 2025 registers with 1,827 occurrences, according to National Records of Scotland, and it has been first in every England and Wales count since the Registrar General’s estimate of 1853, according to the Guild of One-Name Studies. Most of the rest describe a job, a place, a father or a nickname given to someone seven or eight centuries ago.
This guide is part of our Scottish Names collection. Browse the full Scottish Names directory for first names, surnames and Gaelic lists, or read our explainer on Highland and Lowland Scottish surnames to see how the Scottish half of this page splits in two.
This is written for anyone trying to work out which part of Britain their surname comes from: family historians, people with a British name living in the US, Canada or Australia, and anyone who has been told their name is Scottish by one relative and English by another. Below you get a surname checker, the most common names in each nation with the official counts, the clues that separate a Welsh name from a Scottish one, and a quick list of every surname on the page.
A wee bit of context first. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, built by a team at the University of the West of England over four years, studied 45,600 of the most frequent family names. About 88 per cent of them, nearly 40,000 names, are native to Britain and Ireland. The other 12 per cent arrived with Huguenot, Dutch, Jewish, Indian, Chinese, African and other settlers from the 16th century on, which is why Patel (101,463 bearers in 2011) now sits among the most common names in the country.
Two Scots Abroad · Scottish names
British surname origin checker
134 surnames from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Type a surname to see where it comes from, what it meant to the first person who carried it, and where it is most common now. Filter by nation or by the type of name.
Nothing matches that. Clear a filter or try a shorter search.
What are the most common surnames in each British nation?
Smith, Jones and Williams lead England and Wales; Smith, Brown and Wilson lead Scotland; Jones, Williams and Davies lead Wales. The table below sets the four national lists side by side. Scotland’s column is the NRS count for 2025, which adds up every surname on the birth, marriage and death registers. England and Wales comes from General Register Office deaths for 1984 to 1997, as compiled by the Guild of One-Name Studies, because there is no modern official list. For Ulster, the most recent county-level count we could find in an official source is the 1890 births index in Robert Matheson’s report for the Registrar General for Ireland.
| Rank | England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997) | Scotland (registers 2025) | Wales (1986 phone directories) | County Antrim (births 1890) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smith | Smith (1,827) | Jones | Smith (134) |
| 2 | Jones | Brown (1,248) | Williams | Johnston (126) |
| 3 | Williams | Wilson (1,205) | Davies | Stewart (126) |
| 4 | Taylor | Thomson (1,033) | Evans | Wilson (119) |
| 5 | Brown | Campbell (1,027) | Thomas | Thompson (101) |
| 6 | Davies | Stewart (991) | Roberts | O’Neill (98) |
| 7 | Thomas | Robertson (958) | Hughes | Campbell (96) |
| 8 | Evans | Anderson (942) | Lewis | Moore (96) |
| 9 | Wilson | Taylor (751) | Morgan | Bell (90) |
| 10 | Roberts | Murray (736) | Griffiths | Robinson (89) |
Two things jump out. Scotland’s top ten is far more Scottish than you might expect from a country that shares Smith, Brown and Taylor with England: Thomson, Campbell, Stewart, Robertson, Anderson and Murray are all names you rarely meet near the top of an English list. And Wales is in a league of its own. Wikipedia sums up the research: about 718,000 people in Wales, nearly 35 per cent of the population, carry a Welsh-origin family name, against 5.3 per cent in the rest of the UK. Jones alone accounted for 337,940 people in England and Wales in the 1881 census, per Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine.
The numbers also move slowly. The NRS occasional paper on 140 years of Scottish surnames found that 89 of Scotland’s top 100 in 1999 to 2001 were already in the top 100 in 1901, and that the top ten names covered 7.9 per cent of everyone in the sample. The 2025 figures show the same names slowly thinning out: Smith is down 892 occurrences since 1975, while Khan (17 to 184), Singh, Ahmed and Nguyen have climbed.
How to tell English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish surnames apart
There is no single rule, but a handful of clues will get you most of the way. Use them in this order: the prefix first, then the ending, then the place.
| Clue | Usually points to | Examples | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac or Mc at the start (son of) | Scotland or Ireland | Macdonald, MacLeod, McKee, McLaughlin | Many are found on both sides of the North Channel |
| O’ at the start (descendant of) | Ireland, including Ulster | O’Neill, O’Doherty, O’Boyle | The O’ was often dropped: Doherty, Boyle |
| P or B at the start, from Welsh ap or ab | Wales | Price, Powell, Pritchard, Bowen, Bevan | Looks English; it is not |
| A first name plus -s | Wales and western England | Jones, Williams, Davies, Roberts | The same -s pattern appears in parts of England |
| A first name plus -son | Scotland, northern England and Ulster | Robertson, Anderson, Thomson, Robinson | Thomson (Scotland) and Thompson (England) split on the p |
| A Norman place or French word | Norman settlers in England and Scotland | Percy, Neville, Montgomery, Graham, Spencer | Many came to Scotland with David I, not with William the Conqueror |
| A local place name | The county that place is in | Hislop, Warburton, Tordoff, Crawford | Several places can share one name |
| C, K or Q where Mac used to be | Isle of Man | Clague, Quirk, Quinney | Not part of the UK, but about 200 Manx surnames are found in Britain |
Good to know: the Mac rule is less tidy than it looks. NRS found that just over one in eight surnames on Scotland’s registers starts with Mac or Mc, and that in the Highland and Western Isles council areas nearly all of the top 50 spell it Mac. Our guide to Scottish Gaelic surnames goes deeper on the Mac and Mc question, and the Celtic last names guide covers the Irish, Welsh, Cornish and Manx versions side by side.
The seven types of British surname
Almost every native British surname falls into one of seven types. Nicknames are the smallest group in medieval records, about 15 to 20 per cent, according to the Guild of One-Name Studies. Place names can be huge: in Devon in 1322, names from places made up 34 per cent of surnames and landscape names another 15 per cent, per the Guild study of toponyms.
| Type | What it records | British examples |
|---|---|---|
| Occupational | The job the first bearer did | Smith, Taylor, Baxter, Fletcher, Hunter, Stewart |
| Place name (locative) | A town, village or farm the family came from | Hislop, Crawford, Warburton, Murray, Havard |
| Landscape (topographic) | A feature they lived beside | Hill, Wood, Green, Craig, Ross, Shaw |
| Patronymic | The father’s name, with son, Mac, ap or -s | Wilson, Macdonald, Price, Jones, Kelly |
| Given name | A first name used unchanged | Thomas, Martin, Morgan, Owen, Bennett |
| Nickname | Looks, character or a joke | Brown, Campbell, Lloyd, Armstrong, Bellamy |
| Norman or French | Names brought by Norman settlers | Percy, Neville, Montgomery, Graham, Russell |
If you want the Scottish side of this in more detail, we have separate guides to Scottish occupational surnames and Scottish surnames from places.
English surnames worth knowing
Smith
Meaning: a blacksmith or metal worker. Origin: English. Type: occupational. Where: No. 1 in Scotland (1,827 in 2025 registers) and in England and Wales.
The commonest surname in Britain by some distance. The Oxford dictionary team counted more than 400,000 Smiths in 1881 and about 500,000 today, as ITV reported at the launch. The Registrar General’s 1853 estimate for England alone was 253,600. It is also number one in Scotland and fifth in Ireland, so on its own it tells you nothing about which nation your family came from.
Taylor
Meaning: a tailor. Origin: English (Anglo-Norman). Type: occupational. Where: No. 4 in England and Wales; No. 9 in Scotland (751 in 2025).
Fourth in England and Wales and ninth in Scotland, Taylor is the clearest sign of how many medieval tailors there were. The Oxford dictionary team put it at just under 200,000 in 1881 and over 250,000 today, level with Brown.
Wright
Meaning: a carpenter, craftsman or wagon maker. Origin: English. Type: occupational. Where: No. 13 in England and Wales (1984 to 1997).
A fossil job title. Patrick Hanks uses Wright and Chandler as examples of surnames whose trade words have dropped out of everyday English, which is why the meaning (a carpenter, craftsman or wagon maker) is so easy to miss. Thirteenth in England and Wales on the 1984 to 1997 death registers.
Walker
Meaning: a fuller who trod raw, wet wool to clean and thicken it. Origin: English. Type: occupational. Where: No. 15 in England and Wales; No. 15 in Scotland (611 in 2025).
The surname with the most misleading meaning in English. A walker trod cloth, not paths: fulling was also called walking or tucking, so Walker, Tucker and Fuller are three names for one smelly job. Walker is 15th in both England and Wales and in Scotland, with 611 Scottish occurrences in 2025.
Warburton
Meaning: Waerburg’s estate. Origin: Old English place name. Type: place name. Where: 7,663 in 2011; Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire.
A tidy example of a place-name surname. The Oxford dictionary examples trace it to Warburton in Cheshire, Wærburg’s estate, and the name has barely moved: 7,367 bearers in 1881, 7,663 in 2011, still mostly in Lancashire, Cheshire and the old West Riding.
Hawkins
Meaning: son of Hawkin (young Ralph), or from Hawkinge in Kent. Origin: English. Type: patronymic. Where: 28,843 in 2011; Somerset, Gloucestershire, Kent.
One of the names the dictionary team corrected. It can mean son of Hawkin (young Ralph), come from Hawkinge in Kent, or be an Irish name, Ó hEacháin. There were 21,354 Hawkinses in 1881 and 28,843 in 2011, heaviest in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Kent.
Patel
Meaning: a village headman. Origin: Gujarati. Type: occupational. Where: 101,463 in Britain in 2011.
The shape of modern Britain in one surname. A status name from the Hindu and Parsi word for a village headman, it had 101,463 bearers in Britain in 2011, and Hanks puts it 32nd in the dictionary’s 1997 frequency data. It is as British a surname now as Wright or Walker.
Scottish surnames worth knowing
Campbell
Meaning: crooked mouth (caimbeul), first a nickname. Origin: Scottish Gaelic. Type: nickname. Where: No. 5 in Scotland (1,027 in 2025); 76,576 in Britain in 2011.
Fifth in Scotland in 2025 with 1,027 occurrences, and 76,576 bearers across Britain in 2011. The meaning is a Gaelic nickname, caimbeul, crooked mouth. The family’s later Latin story, de campo bello or beautiful field, is folk etymology. In Ulster it gets more tangled: an Irish entry on the name notes a Tyrone family, Mac Cathmhaoil, that also took the name Campbell.
Stewart
Meaning: a steward, keeper of a household. Origin: Scots and Gaelic. Type: occupational. Where: No. 6 in Scotland (991 in 2025); 126 births in Antrim in 1890.
A job title that became a royal dynasty. Walter, hereditary High Steward of Scotland, married Marjorie Bruce, and their son founded the royal house; Mary, Queen of Scots later used the French spelling Stuart. It is sixth in Scotland today and joint second in County Antrim in 1890. Our page on Scottish royal last names has the rest of the family tree.
Thomson
Meaning: son of Thomas. Origin: Scots. Type: patronymic. Where: No. 4 in Scotland (1,033 in 2025), up from 7th.
The biggest riser in Scotland’s 2025 list, up 45 occurrences and from seventh to fourth. Scotland’s registers use Thomson far more than the Thompson spelling that tops English lists, so the missing p is one of the more reliable spelling clues on this page. Our Scottish last names starting with T cover its neighbours.
Murray
Meaning: from Moray (Muireb), sea settlement; or Irish Ó Muireadhaigh. Origin: Scottish Gaelic and Irish. Type: place name. Where: No. 10 in Scotland (736 in 2025).
Two names in one spelling. The Scottish Murrays take their name from Moray, the district on the south shore of the Moray Firth, from Gaelic Muireb, sea settlement. Irish Murrays are usually Ó Muireadhaigh, descendant of Muireadhach. Tenth in Scotland in 2025.
Macdonald
Meaning: son of Domhnall (world-mighty). Origin: Scottish Gaelic. Type: patronymic. Where: No. 12 in Scotland (700 in 2025).
Twelfth in Scotland in 2025, but that undersells it. NRS counts MacDonald and McDonald separately; put them together and the name was second in Scotland in 1999 to 2001. The Clan Donald name, son of Domhnall (world-mighty), also crossed to Ireland: by about 1520 the family had settled the Glens of Antrim through a marriage to the Bissett heiress, which is why you meet MacDonnells there.
Johnston
Meaning: from the lands of Johnstone in Annandale; the first recorded bearer was Gilbert, son of Jon. Origin: Scots. Type: place name. Where: 126 births in Antrim in 1890; No. 28 in Scotland in 1995.
The first recorded bearer was Gilbert, son of Jon, who held the lands of Johnstone in Annandale after 1194. The Johnstones were one of the most powerful Border reiver families, and in 1890 Johnston was joint second in County Antrim with 126 births, level with Stewart.
Hislop
Meaning: hazel valley, from Hazelhope Burn in Roxburghshire. Origin: Scots place name. Type: place name. Where: 1,630 in Britain in 2011, mainly Lowland Scotland.
The dictionary team’s favourite correction. Older books filed Hislop as a northern English name; it is a Scottish place name from Hazelhope Burn in Roxburghshire, from Middle English hasel (hazel) and hop (a deep, enclosed valley). There were 1,630 Hislops in Britain in 2011, still mostly in Lowland Scotland.
Welsh surnames worth knowing
Jones
Meaning: John’s son: the English -s added to John. Origin: Welsh and English. Type: patronymic. Where: No. 1 in Wales; 337,940 people in England and Wales in 1881.
Wales’s commonest surname and second in England and Wales. It is John with an -s on the end, one of the patronymic names that replaced the old ap and ab system from the 15th century on. Because so few first names were in use, the stock of Welsh surnames is small: eight Wales rugby internationals called Jones were unrelated, which says it all.
Price
Meaning: son of Rhys (ap Rhys). Origin: Welsh. Type: patronymic. Where: 52,144 in 1881; south Wales.
The best example of how ap vanished into a name. Ap Rhys, son of Rhys, became Price or Pryce, and the same Rhys gives you Rees and Rice. There were 52,144 Prices in England and Wales in 1881, most of them in south Wales. The same trick gives Powell (ap Hywel), Pugh (ap Huw), Bowen (ab Owen) and Bevan (ab Iefan). Our full Welsh surnames guide lists the lot.
Davies
Meaning: son of David. Origin: Welsh. Type: patronymic. Where: 152,045 in 1881; about a quarter of 1891’s Davieses lived in Glamorgan.
Son of David, and third in Wales. About a quarter of the 160,000 Davieses in the 1891 census lived in Glamorgan alone. Davis, without the e, was counted as a separate name in England’s 1853 top 50, so do not assume the two spellings are the same family.
Lloyd
Meaning: grey (llwyd). Origin: Welsh. Type: nickname. Where: 34,862 in 1881.
A Welsh nickname surname, from llwyd, grey. There were 34,862 Lloyds in England and Wales in 1881. Wynne, from gwyn (fair or white), is the other one you will meet, mostly in north Wales.
Northern Irish surnames worth knowing
Northern Ireland’s surnames are a mix of native Irish names, Scottish names brought by the 17th-century Plantation, and English names. In 1890 the Antrim list was dominated by Scottish and English names, while Donegal, Derry and Tyrone were led by Irish ones. The Scots-Irish surnames guide and our Ulster Scots surnames by county cover the Plantation names in depth.
Kelly
Meaning: descendant of Ceallach (war, contention). Origin: Irish. Type: patronymic. Where: 2nd in Ireland (Matheson); No. 38 in Scotland in 1995.
Descendant of Ceallach, a name linked to war or contention. It was the second commonest surname in all of Ireland in Matheson’s report, with several unrelated Kelly families, one of them in County Derry. It travelled the other way too: Kelly was 38th in Scotland in 1995.
Doherty
Meaning: descendant of Dochartach (hurtful, disobliging). Origin: Irish. Type: patronymic. Where: 160 births in Donegal in 1890; Docherty No. 76 in Scotland in 1995.
Descendant of Dochartach, glossed as hurtful or disobliging, which is a brave thing to put on a family. The O’Doghertys were lords of Inishowen until their lands were confiscated after Sir Cahir O’Dogherty’s rebellion. In 1890 Doherty was second in Donegal and top in Londonderry, and as Docherty it was 76th in Scotland in 1995.
O’Neill
Meaning: descendant of Niall (champion). Origin: Irish. Type: patronymic. Where: 98 births in Antrim in 1890.
Descendant of Niall (champion). The Ó Néill were kings of Ulster and chiefs of the territory that became Tyrone and Derry, and a branch settled in Antrim and Down in the 14th century. In 1890 there were 98 O’Neill births in Antrim, sixth in the county.
Moore
Meaning: open land or bog (English mor); or Irish Ó Mórdha (majestic). Origin: English and Irish. Type: landscape. Where: 96 births in Antrim in 1890; England’s 1853 top 40.
A classic two-origin name. English Moore comes from Middle English mor, open land or bog; Irish Moore is often Ó Mórdha (majestic), the old chiefs of Leix. In 1890 it was joint seventh in Antrim with 96 births, and the records do not tell you which Moore is which.
When did British surnames become hereditary?
Not all at once, which matters if you are tracing a family tree. Patrick Hanks sets out the timetable in his chapter on British family names:
| Where | Surnames became hereditary | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Ireland | Mac and Ó names by the 11th century | The oldest fixed surnames in these islands |
| Southern England | Most people by about 1350 | Earlier records show bynames that could change |
| Northern England | Most people by about 1450 | A century later than the south |
| Scotland | Most landholders by about 1300; not complete until the 16th century or later | Patronymics could still change from one generation to the next |
| Wales | Still rare in 1500, spreading from the mid-16th century | Patronymics lasted into the early 1800s in some rural areas |
How to work out where your British surname comes from
- Check the prefix and ending first. Mac, O’, ap and -son narrow it down in seconds, because they are the oldest part of the name.
- Then look for a place. If the name matches a town or farm, find out which county it is in. Hislop, Warburton and Tordoff all point to one small area.
- Look at where the name was in 1881. Surnames had barely moved by then, so a name that is 95 per cent West Riding in 1881 (Tordoff) probably started near there. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names gives 1881 and current counts for every entry, and UK public libraries that subscribe give free access.
- Check for a second origin. Murray, Moore, Kennedy, Campbell, Hawkins and Lee all have two unrelated sources. The spelling alone will not settle it; your family’s county usually will.
- Distrust the family legend. Campbell from de campo bello, Starbuck from Starbeck, Farraday as servant of Fair: all were in print, all are wrong according to the Oxford team.
Watch out for: Johnson and Johnston. They look like spelling variants, but Johnson is an English son-of-John name and Johnston a Scottish place name from Annandale. Thomson and Thompson are closer cousins: both mean son of Thomas, and the p is mostly a Scottish versus English spelling habit. Everyone who has spent an evening on a census website has typed the wrong one at least once.
For the Norse and Norman layers that sit under a lot of these names, see our guides to Viking surnames and Norman surnames in Scotland.
Quick list: all 134 British surnames on this page
| Surname | Nation | Type | Origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson | Scotland | Patronymic | Scots and English | son of Andrew |
| Armstrong | Scotland, England, Northern Ireland | Nickname | Middle English | a nickname for someone with strong arms |
| Baker | England | Occupational | English | a baker |
| Barker | England | Occupational | English | a tanner of leather |
| Baxter | England, Scotland | Occupational | Middle English | a baker (bakstere) |
| Bellamy | England | Nickname, Norman or French | French | good friend |
| Bennett | England | Given name, Norman or French | Anglo-Norman | blessed, from the name Benedict |
| Bevan | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Iefan (Evan) |
| Bowen | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Owen (ab Owen) |
| Boyd | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Nickname, Place name | Gaelic (disputed) | fair or yellow (buidhe), or from Bute |
| Boyle | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Baoigheall (perhaps vain pledge) |
| Brown | England, Scotland, Northern Ireland | Nickname | English and Scots | the colour brown, for hair or complexion |
| Butler | England | Occupational, Norman or French | English (Anglo-Norman) | a servant in charge of the wine cellar |
| Cambridge | England | Place name | English place name | from Cambridge (Gloucestershire or the city) |
| Campbell | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Nickname | Scottish Gaelic | crooked mouth (caimbeul), first a nickname |
| Carter | England | Occupational | Anglo-Norman | someone who used a cart |
| Chapman | England | Occupational | Old English | a market trader, merchant or pedlar |
| Clark | Scotland, England | Occupational | English and Scots | a clerk, cleric or scribe |
| Clutterbuck | England | Nickname | Dutch | a merchant’s account book, so a merchant |
| Cook | England | Occupational | Old English | a cook |
| Cooper | England | Occupational | Middle English | a barrel and cask maker |
| Craig | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Landscape | Scots | a steep or precipitous rock |
| Crawford | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name | Scots and Old English | crow ford |
| Davies | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh | son of David |
| Dawkins | England | Patronymic | English | Dawkin: Daw (a form of Ralph) plus -kin |
| Doherty | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Dochartach (hurtful, disobliging) |
| Dunlop | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name | Scottish Gaelic | a muddy fort or hill |
| Edwards | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh and English | son of Edward |
| Evans | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Evan |
| Farraday | England | Nickname | Middle English | from faire dai, (have a) fair day, a cheerful person |
| Fisher | England | Occupational | English | someone who made a living by fishing |
| Fletcher | Scotland, England | Occupational, Norman or French | Old French | an arrow maker or seller |
| Fuller | England | Occupational | English | someone who fulled (cleaned and thickened) woollen cloth |
| Gallagher | Northern Ireland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Gallchobhar (foreign help) |
| Gillespie | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Gaelic | son of the bishop’s servant |
| Graham | Scotland, Northern Ireland, England | Place name, Norman or French | Anglo-French | from Grantham in Lincolnshire, probably gravelly homestead |
| Green | England | Landscape | English | someone who lived by the village green |
| Griffiths | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | from Gruffudd |
| Hall | England | Landscape, Occupational | English | someone who lived or worked at the hall |
| Hamilton | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name, Norman or French | English place name, Scottish family | probably from Hamilton in Leicestershire |
| Harris | England | Patronymic | English | son of Harry |
| Havard | Wales | Place name | Welsh place name | from Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire |
| Hawkins | England | Patronymic | English | son of Hawkin (young Ralph), or from Hawkinge in Kent |
| Hill | England | Landscape | English | someone who lived on a hill |
| Hislop | Scotland | Place name | Scots place name | hazel valley, from Hazelhope Burn in Roxburghshire |
| Hughes | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh and English | son of Hugh |
| Hunter | Scotland | Occupational | Old English, Scottish use | a huntsman |
| Jackson | England | Patronymic | English | son of Jack |
| Johnson | England | Patronymic | English | son of John |
| Johnston | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name | Scots | from the lands of Johnstone in Annandale; the first recorded bearer was Gilbert, son of Jon |
| Jones | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh and English | John’s son: the English -s added to John |
| Kelly | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Ceallach (war, contention) |
| Kennedy | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Irish, also Scottish | descendant of Cinnéididh (helmeted head) |
| Kerr | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Landscape | Cumbric or Middle English (disputed) | a fort (Cumbric caer), or wet brushwood ground (kerr) |
| King | England | Nickname | Old English | a nickname from cyning, king |
| Kirby | England | Place name | Old Norse | church settlement (kirkja + byr) |
| Knight | England | Occupational | Old English | a knight or serving lad |
| Lee | England | Landscape | English | a field or meadow |
| Lewis | Wales | Given name | Welsh | from Llywelyn |
| Lindsay | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name, Norman or French | Norman-era place name | a place name brought north by David I’s Norman followers |
| Little | Scotland, England | Nickname | Old English | little (lytel) |
| Lloyd | Wales | Nickname | Welsh | grey (llwyd) |
| Macdonald | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Patronymic | Scottish Gaelic | son of Domhnall (world-mighty) |
| MacDougall | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Patronymic | Scottish Gaelic | son of Dubhghall (dark stranger) |
| MacLeod | Scotland | Patronymic | Scottish Gaelic and Norse | son of Leod, from Norse Ljotr (ugly) |
| MacNeill | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Patronymic | Scottish Gaelic | son of Niall (champion) |
| Marshall | Scotland, England | Occupational | Middle English (from Germanic) | a horse servant, groom or farrier |
| Martin | England, Scotland, Northern Ireland | Given name | Latin, via the saint | from the given name Martin, linked to Mars |
| Mason | England, Scotland | Occupational | English | a stonemason |
| Maxwell | Scotland | Place name | Old English place name | Mack’s spring or stream, near Melrose |
| McKee | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Gaelic | son of Aodh |
| McLaughlin | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Gaelic (Norse root) | son of Lochlainn, a name of Norse origin |
| Meikle | Scotland | Nickname | Scots | big |
| Mitchell | Scotland, England | Given name | English and Scots | from Michel (Michael), or Middle English michel, big |
| Montgomery | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name, Norman or French | Norman French | from Montgommery in Normandy |
| Moore | Northern Ireland, England | Landscape | English and Irish | open land or bog (English mor); or Irish Ó Mórdha (majestic) |
| Morgan | Wales | Given name | Welsh | from Old Welsh Morcan |
| Morrison | Scotland | Patronymic | Scots and Gaelic | son of Maurice; on Lewis, Mac Ghille Mhoire (servant of Mary) |
| Murphy | Northern Ireland, Scotland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Murchadh (sea-warrior) |
| Murray | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name | Scottish Gaelic and Irish | from Moray (Muireb), sea settlement; or Irish Ó Muireadhaigh |
| Neville | England | Place name, Norman or French | Norman French | new town |
| O’Neill | Northern Ireland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Niall (champion) |
| Osborne | England | Given name | Old Norse | probably god-bear (Asbjorn) |
| Owen | Wales | Given name | Welsh | from Owain |
| Palin | England | Given name | Middle English | from Paulin, little Paul |
| Parker | England | Occupational | English | a keeper of the park |
| Parry | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Harry (ap Harry) |
| Patel | England | Occupational | Gujarati | a village headman |
| Percy | England | Place name, Norman or French | Norman French | from Percy-en-Auge in Normandy |
| Pickering | England | Place name | English place name | from Pickering in North Yorkshire |
| Powell | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Hywel (ap Hywel) |
| Price | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Rhys (ap Rhys) |
| Pritchard | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Richard (ap Richard) |
| Prosser | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Rosser, the Welsh Roger |
| Pugh | Wales | Patronymic | Welsh | son of Huw (ap Huw) |
| Quinn | Northern Ireland | Patronymic | Irish | descendant of Conn (head, sense, reason) |
| Ramsay | Scotland | Place name, Norman or French | Norman-era place name | a place name brought north by David I’s Norman followers |
| Rees | Wales | Given name | Welsh | from Rhys |
| Reeve | England | Occupational | Old English | a manor official who collected rents and organised labour |
| Roberts | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh and English | Robert’s son, or a servant of Robert |
| Robertson | Scotland | Patronymic | Scots | son of Robert |
| Robinson | England, Northern Ireland | Patronymic | English | son of Robin |
| Ross | Scotland | Landscape | Scottish Gaelic | a promontory or headland |
| Russell | England, Scotland | Nickname, Norman or French | Anglo-Norman | red-haired (diminutive of rus, red) |
| Scott | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Place name | Scots | a Border name, recorded from the 1100s |
| Shaw | England, Scotland | Landscape | Old English | someone who lived by a small wood (sceaga) |
| Sinclair | Scotland | Place name, Norman or French | Norman-era place name | a place name brought north by David I’s Norman followers |
| Smith | England, Scotland, Northern Ireland | Occupational | English | a blacksmith or metal worker |
| Snow | England | Nickname | Middle English | snow-white hair or a very pale face |
| Spencer | England | Occupational, Norman or French | Old French | a steward (despensier) |
| Starbuck | England | Place name | English place name | from Tarbock in Lancashire |
| Stewart | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Occupational | Scots and Gaelic | a steward, keeper of a household |
| Sutcliffe | England | Place name | English place name | a Yorkshire place name |
| Swain | England | Given name | Old Norse | a youth or young attendant (Sveinn) |
| Taylor | England, Scotland | Occupational | English (Anglo-Norman) | a tailor |
| Thatcher | England | Occupational | English | someone who laid thatched roofs |
| Thomas | Wales, England | Given name | Welsh and English | from the given name Thomas, Aramaic for twin |
| Thompson | England, Northern Ireland | Patronymic | English | son of Thomas |
| Thomson | Scotland | Patronymic | Scots | son of Thomas |
| Thorpe | England | Place name | Middle English | a hamlet or small village |
| Tordoff | England | Place name | English place name | from Tordoff Point on the Solway Firth |
| Turner | England | Occupational | Middle English | someone who worked a lathe |
| Upjohn | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh | son of John (ap John) |
| Walker | England, Scotland | Occupational | English | a fuller who trod raw, wet wool to clean and thicken it |
| Wallace | Scotland, Northern Ireland | Nickname, Norman or French | Anglo-Norman | Welshman (waleis), a Cumbric speaker |
| Warburton | England | Place name | Old English place name | Waerburg’s estate |
| Ward | England | Occupational | Old English | a watchman or guard |
| Webster | England, Scotland | Occupational | English | a weaver |
| White | England | Nickname | English | the colour white, for hair or complexion |
| Williams | Wales, England | Patronymic | Welsh and English | son of William |
| Wilson | Scotland, England, Northern Ireland | Patronymic | English and Scots | son of Will |
| Wood | England, Scotland | Landscape | English and Scots | someone who lived or worked in a wood |
| Wright | England | Occupational | English | a carpenter, craftsman or wagon maker |
| Wynne | Wales | Nickname | Welsh | fair or white (gwyn) |
FAQ about British surnames
What is the most common surname in Britain?
Smith. It is number one in Scotland, with 1,827 occurrences on the 2025 registers, and in England and Wales, where it has led every survey since 1853. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names team counted about 500,000 Smiths in Britain and Ireland, up from more than 400,000 in 1881. Jones and Williams come next.
What are typical British surnames?
Smith, Jones, Williams, Brown, Taylor, Davies, Wilson and Evans are the most typical across Britain. Each nation has its own favourites: Campbell, Stewart and Thomson in Scotland; Jones, Davies and Evans in Wales; Johnson, Wright and Walker in England; and Kelly, Doherty and O’Neill among the Irish names of Northern Ireland.
How can you tell if a surname is Scottish or English?
Start with the prefix and ending. Mac or Mc usually means Scottish or Irish, and -son is commonest in Scotland and northern England. Thomson without a p is usually Scottish. Then check for a Scottish place, like Hislop, Crawford or Murray, and look at where the name clustered in the 1881 census.
Why do so many Welsh people have the same surname?
Because Welsh surnames grew out of first names. The ap and ab system named you after your father, and when fixed surnames arrived from the 15th century on, people turned those first names into surnames: Jones from John, Davies from David. Few first names were in use, so the stock of surnames stayed small.
What are the most common surnames in Northern Ireland?
The latest official county counts we found are from the 1890 births index. Smith, Johnston, Stewart, Wilson and Thompson led Antrim; Thompson, Smith and Campbell led Down; Doherty and McLaughlin led Londonderry; Quinn led Tyrone. Campbell appears in six of the nine Ulster county lists.
Is Smith an English or a Scottish surname?
Both, and Irish too. Smith simply meant a blacksmith or metal worker, and every community had one, so the name arose independently all over these islands. It is number one in Scotland and in England and Wales, and Matheson ranked it fifth in Ireland. The surname alone cannot tell you which nation your Smiths came from.
Final thoughts on British surnames
If you remember one thing, make it this: a British surname tells you what your ancestor did, where they lived or who their father was, roughly 700 years ago, and the prefix or ending usually tells you which nation. Smith, Brown and Taylor are the exceptions, common everywhere and proof of nothing.
Use the checker at the top to test your own name, then follow the links into the Welsh, Scots-Irish and Scottish guides for the deep dive. If your name started with Mac and your relatives cannot agree whether it is Scottish or Irish, the Scottish clan surnames guide is the place to start the argument.
Sources
- National Records of Scotland, Most Common Surnames 2025 (published 26 May 2026)
- National Records of Scotland, 100 Most Common Surnames (1995 registers)
- National Records of Scotland, Occasional Paper 9: Surnames in Scotland over the last 140 years (2003)
- UWE Bristol, UK’s largest ever study reveals origins of 45,600 surnames (Oxford Dictionary of Family Names, 2016)
- UWE Bristol, Family Names of the United Kingdom: example family names
- ITV News, Most common surnames in Britain and Ireland revealed (17 November 2016)
- Guild of One-Name Studies, Top surnames in England and Wales
- Guild of One-Name Studies, Top surnames in Wales
- Guild of One-Name Studies, Nicknames
- Guild of One-Name Studies, Toponyms
- Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, What are the most common Welsh surnames? (1881 census counts)
- Wikipedia, Welsh surnames
- Patrick Hanks, Family Names (chapter 15)
- FamilySearch, Popular English Surnames: Origins and Meanings
- Robert E. Matheson, Special Report on Surnames in Ireland: Ulster counties (1890 births index)
- Robert E. Matheson, Fifty most common surnames in England (Registrar General, 1853)
- Robert E. Matheson, Summary of the most common surnames
- Library Ireland, Campbell (Irish and Scottish origin in Ulster)
- Rev. Patrick Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnames (1923): Ó Dochartaigh and related entries
- Ulster-Scots Agency, Ulster Scots Surnames workbook
