English Surnames: 150 Last Names, Meanings and Origins

English surnames mostly record a job, a place, a landscape feature, a father’s name or a nickname, and the best-known are Smith, Taylor, Brown, Johnson, Wright, Walker, Wood and Hall. Smith has been the most common surname in England in every count since 1853, when the Registrar General estimated 253,600 Smiths in England, according to Matheson’s table of the 1853 indexes. Below are 150 English last names sorted into the seven types, with what each one meant and where it was strongest.

This is written for anyone who has typed their surname into a search bar and got back a one-line meaning with no source. You get a checker that covers 150 names, the official counts behind the most common ones, and a straight answer on which names came over with the Vikings or the Normans and which are home-grown English.

A bit of context first. Hereditary surnames in England are usually dated from the Norman Conquest. Wikipedia’s history of surnames says they were adopted first by the nobility and gentry and spread slowly through the rest of society, and that by 1400 most English families had one. Patrick Hanks, chief editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names, puts it at about 1350 for the south of England and about 1450 for the north. So your surname is probably 600 to 700 years old, which is auld (old) by anyone’s standards.

The most common English surnames

There is no modern official list for England, so the best long-run ranking is the one the Guild of One-Name Studies built from General Register Office death indexes for 1984 to 1997, set against the Registrar General’s estimates for 1853. Here is the top 20, with the type of each name:

Rank (1984 to 1997)	Surname	Share of deaths	People in England, 1853 estimate	Type
1	Smith	1.37%	253,600	Occupational
2	Jones	1.14%	242,100	Patronymic (Welsh)
3	Williams	0.73%	159,900	Patronymic (Welsh)
4	Taylor	0.63%	124,400	Occupational
5	Brown	0.58%	105,600	Nickname
6	Davies	0.58%	113,600	Patronymic (Welsh)
7	Evans	0.47%	93,000	Patronymic (Welsh)
8	Thomas	0.41%	94,000	Given name (Welsh)
9	Wilson	0.39%	66,800	Patronymic
10	Roberts	0.38%	78,400	Patronymic (Welsh)
11	Johnson	0.37%	69,500	Patronymic
12	Robinson	0.33%	66,700	Patronymic
13	Wright	0.32%	62,700	Occupational
14	Thompson	0.31%	60,600	Patronymic
15	Walker	0.31%	59,300	Occupational
16	White	0.31%	56,900	Nickname
17	Edwards	0.30%	58,100	Patronymic (Welsh)
18	Green	0.30%	59,400	Topographic
19	Hall	0.30%	60,400	Topographic
20	Wood	0.30%	61,200	Topographic

Look at the type column and two things jump out. Eleven of the top 20 are built on a first name, and seven of those are names most people would call Welsh: Jones, Williams, Davies, Evans, Thomas, Roberts and Edwards. England and Wales have been counted together since the 1800s, so the Welsh habit of turning a father’s name into a surname shows up right at the top.

The other surprise is what is missing. Not one name from a town or village makes the top 20, even though names from places made up about a third of surnames in Devon in 1322. The arithmetic explains it: every village had a smith, so Smith was coined thousands of times over, while a name like Warburton came from one place and stayed small. Smith’s share has barely moved, either: 1.36 per cent in 1853 and 1.37 per cent in the 1980s and 1990s.

The seven types of English surname

Almost every native English surname fits one of seven types. The shares come from medieval records, so treat them as a rough guide: nicknames are the smallest documented group at 15 to 20 per cent, per the Guild’s note on nicknames, and 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 place-name surnames.

Type	What it records	English examples	In this list
Occupational	The job the first bearer did	Smith, Taylor, Walker, Baxter, Reeve	32
Locative	A town, village or farm the family came from	Warburton, Pickering, Sutcliffe, Kendall	31
Topographic	A landscape feature they lived beside	Hill, Wood, Shaw, Nash, Sykes	26
Patronymic	The father’s name plus -son, -s or -kin	Johnson, Robinson, Atkinson, Harris	13
Given name	A first name used unchanged	Bennett, Martin, Allen, Osborne	21
Nickname	Looks, character or a joke	Brown, White, King, Snow, Farraday	27
Norman or French	Names brought by Norman and French settlers	Mortimer, Neville, Percy, Russell	29

Occupational surnames: what your ancestor did

Job names are the easiest to read and they dominate the top of the list. The Guild of One-Name Studies quotes Tengvik’s rule of thumb that occupational surnames had become hereditary by about 1350, and points out why Smith, Baker, Taylor and Cook are so common: those trades were needed everywhere, but no single village had more than a few of them. If you want the Scottish side, our guide to Scottish occupational surnames covers the Baxters and Websters north of the Border.

Smith

Meaning: a smith, a metalworker. Type: Occupational. Root: Old English. Where: No. 1 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997).

The big one. The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names team counted more than 400,000 Smiths in Britain in 1881 and about 500,000 now, ITV reported in 2016. Every community needed a smith, so the name sprang up all over England, which is also why it tells you almost nothing about where your family started.

Walker

Meaning: a fuller who trod (walked) cloth. Type: Occupational. Root: Middle English. Where: No. 15 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997).

This is the one that has folk fooled. A walker did not walk anywhere much: he trod raw, wet cloth to clean and thicken it. The same job was called fulling and tucking elsewhere, which gives you Fuller and Tucker. Walker was 15th in England and Wales in the 1984 to 1997 death indexes, with an estimated 59,300 people in England in 1853.

Baxter

Meaning: a baker (northern England and Scotland). Type: Occupational. Root: Old English. Where: Strongest in 1890: Lincolnshire; West Riding.

Middle English bakstere, a baker. Baxter and Webster (a weaver) belong to a small family of trade names ending in -ster, along with Brewster. Wiktionary marks Baxter as the northern English and Scottish word, so a Baxter and a Baker were often doing exactly the same job in different accents.

Locative surnames: named after a place

A locative surname tells you a family came from somewhere, usually because they had moved away from it. Nobody in Pickering needed to be called Pickering. The Guild found that areas of scattered farms produced the most place and landscape names, and that Yorkshire produced more place names while Sussex produced more landscape names. That is why Yorkshire is full of names like Sutcliffe, Armitage and Murgatroyd. Scotland has its own set, covered in our guide to Scottish surnames from places.

Tordoff

Meaning: from Tordoff Point on the Solway Firth. Type: Locative. Root: Other or unclear. Where: 707 in 1881, over 95 per cent in the West Riding.

A name with a postcode, near enough. The Oxford dictionary examples trace it to Tordoff Point on the Solway Firth, yet in 1881 there were 707 Tordoffs and more than 95 per cent of them lived in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Somebody flitted (moved house) a long way a very long time ago, and the family stayed put afterwards.

Starbuck

Meaning: from Tarbock in Lancashire. Type: Locative. Root: Other or unclear. Where: 1,076 in 2011; Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire.

Long filed under Starbeck near Harrogate, the dictionary team now traces it to Tarbock in Lancashire. There were 1,076 bearers in 2011, mostly in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. It is a good reminder that older surname books guessed from the nearest-looking place, and some of those guesses were wrong.

Murgatroyd

Meaning: Margaret’s clearing, a Yorkshire place. Type: Locative. Root: Middle English. Where: England.

A ridiculous joy of a name, and a real place: Margaret’s royd, a clearing in Yorkshire. Royd means a clearing, and you find it again in Ackroyd (oak clearing). Wiktionary notes the surname is recorded in Yorkshire, as Mergretrode, from the 14th century.

Topographic surnames: named after the landscape

Topographic names describe where you lived rather than which village you came from: by the hill, at the wood, down the lane. Hill, Green, Hall and Wood all make the national top 30, and the Guild warns that Hall can mean either someone who lived at the hall or someone who worked there. Patrick Hanks adds a southern twist in his chapter on British family names: in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire an -er ending could mark where you lived, as in Chalker and Streeter.

Nash

Meaning: at the ash tree. Type: Topographic. Root: Middle English. Where: Strongest in 1890: Buckinghamshire; Hertfordshire.

A lovely bit of medieval slurring. Middle English atten ash meant at the ash tree, and over time the n of atten slid across onto the tree: atten ash, a Nash, Nash. Guppy found Nash strongest in 1890 in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Surrey, each with 30 per 10,000 farmers.

Sykes

Meaning: someone by a sike, a small stream or ditch. Type: Topographic. Root: Middle English. Where: Strongest in 1890: West Riding; Lincolnshire.

Someone who lived by a sike, a wee (small) stream or ditch. It is a West Riding name above all: Guppy found 65 Sykeses per 10,000 farmers there in 1890, against 18 in Lincolnshire, the only other county where it registered. If your Sykes ancestors were not from Yorkshire, they were probably the exception.

Patronymic surnames: son of

A patronymic is a father’s name turned into a surname, with -son, -s or a pet form ending in -kin. The -son names lean north, into northern England and Scotland; the -s names lean west and into Wales, which is where Jones and Williams come from (see our Welsh surnames guide). Pet forms did a lot of the work: Atkin, a pet form of Adam, gave Atkinson, and Daw and Hawkin, both pet forms of Ralph, gave Dawkins and Hawkins.

Atkinson

Meaning: son of Atkin, a pet form of Adam. Type: Patronymic. Root: Middle English. Where: Strongest in 1890: Cumberland and Westmorland; Durham.

Son of Atkin, a pet form of Adam. This is a properly northern name: Guppy found 126 Atkinsons per 10,000 farmers in Cumberland and Westmorland and 108 in Durham in 1890, against just 9 in Cheshire. If you have Atkinsons in the tree, look north of the Humber first.

Given-name surnames: a first name kept whole

Some families simply kept the father’s first name as it was, with no -son or -s. Many of these names arrived with the Normans, which is why so many sound French or Germanic: Arnold, Gilbert, Lambert and Goddard all came in with them, and Oliver comes from Olivier, one of Charlemagne’s paladins.

Bennett

Meaning: from a medieval form of Benedict. Type: Given name. Root: Latin or Biblical. Where: About 35,800 people in England in 1853.

From Benet, the everyday medieval form of Benedict, so the meaning is blessed. An estimated 35,800 people in England were called Bennett in 1853, 46th on the Registrar General’s list. Guppy found it widespread among farmers in 1890, with the most in Gloucestershire (60 per 10,000) and Dorset (57).

Hammond

Meaning: from the Norman given name Hamo or Hamon. Type: Given name, Norman or French. Root: Norman or French. Where: Widespread across England in 1890.

A name with two candidate pasts. The usual English explanation is the Norman given name Hamo or Hamon. The Oxford dictionary entry quoted by Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine points to Old Norse Hámundr, which may have been used in Normandy before it crossed the Channel. Either way it arrived with settlers. In 1890 it was strongest among farmers in Kent.

Nickname surnames: looks, habits and jokes

Nicknames are where English surnames get personal. The Guild says most nickname origins are obscure, that many were given ironically, and that as a group they largely defy classification. So Little might have been a muckle (big) lad and King was almost certainly not a king. Wikipedia makes the same point about Short, which may have been an ironic name for a tall man.

Brown

Meaning: brown hair or a dark complexion. Type: Nickname. Root: Middle English. Where: No. 5 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997).

Brown hair or a dark complexion, and fifth in England and Wales. An estimated 105,600 people were called Brown in England in 1853, and the Oxford team put it level with Taylor at over 250,000 today. White, 16th, is its opposite number: white hair or a pale face.

Farraday

Meaning: from faire dai, (have a) fair day, a cheerful person. Type: Nickname. Root: Middle English. Where: 135 in 1881, mainly Lancashire.

From Middle English faire dai, as in have a fair day, a nickname for a cheerful person. The older explanation, servant of someone called Fair, is wrong according to the dictionary team. There were only 135 Farradays in 1881, mostly in Lancashire, and Vardy turns out to be the same name.

Clutterbuck

Meaning: a merchant’s account book, so a merchant. Type: Nickname. Root: Other or unclear. Where: 1,165 in 2011, mainly Gloucestershire.

A Dutch surname that made itself at home in Gloucestershire, where bearers are recorded from the 1400s. It comes from a Dutch nickname linked to a merchant’s account book. There were 1,165 Clutterbucks in 2011, still mostly in Gloucestershire, which is cracking staying power for a name that sounds like a kitchen accident.

Norman and French surnames in England

After 1066 the new ruling class brought their own names. Wikipedia notes that some Norman nobles put de (of, from) in front of the name of their village in France, which produced territorial surnames like Mortimer, Neville and Percy. French job titles (Butler, Spencer, Parker) and nicknames (Russell, a redhead; Bellamy, good friend) followed. The Normans went north too, and our page on Norman surnames in Scotland covers the Norman families who settled there.

Mortimer

Meaning: from Mortemer in Normandy, dead pond. Type: Locative, Norman or French. Root: Norman or French. Where: Strongest in 1890: Devon; North and East Ridings.

From Mortemer in Normandy, dead pond, which is hardly the cheeriest place name to carry about for 900 years. In 1890 Guppy found the surname most among farmers in Devon (20 per 10,000) and the North and East Ridings (10).

Norse surnames in England

The Vikings left a deep layer under English surnames, mostly in the north and east. The Danelaw, the area under Danish law from the late ninth century, covered roughly Yorkshire, the central and eastern Midlands and the East of England, the land north of a line between London and Chester. Its place names end in -by (village) and -thorp (hamlet), and those places became surnames: Kirby is church village, and kirk is still the Scots word for a church. Our Norse place name guide explains the endings, and the Viking surnames guide covers the Scottish and Scandinavian side.

Surname	Old Norse root	Meaning	Type
Kirby	kirkja + býr	church village	Locative
Appleby	býr (with Old English æppel)	apple farm	Locative
Askew	eikiskógr	oak wood	Topographic
Booth	both (arguably Norse)	a herdsman’s hut on summer pasture, a bothy	Topographic
Gill	gil	a deep glen or ravine (in northern England)	Topographic
Thwaites	thwaite	a forest clearing	Topographic
Wroe	vrá	a nook or corner of land	Topographic
Osborne	Ásbjǫrn	god + bear	Given name
Swain	Sveinn	a youth or young attendant	Given name
Kay	kei	left-handed	Nickname
Clegg	kleggi	gadfly or horsefly	Nickname
Skinner	skinn	someone who stripped hides	Occupational
Cartwright	kartr (with Old English wyrhta)	a cart maker	Occupational

Two of these show how mixed English really is. Cartwright is a Norse cart with an English wright on the end, and Holt can be either an Old English or an Old Norse word for a wood, because both languages had it. If your family name is on this table, it has a Norse word inside it. That is not the same thing as Viking blood, but it makes a better story at Christmas.

English or Scottish? Names that sit on both sides

Plenty of English-looking surnames are just as Scottish, and a few lookalikes are not related at all:

Surname	English story	Scottish story	How to tell
Johnson / Johnston	Johnson: son of John, 11th in England and Wales	Johnston: from the lands of Johnstone in Annandale	The t is the clue: Johnston is a place, Johnson a father
Thompson / Thomson	Thompson: son of Thomas, 14th in England and Wales	Thomson: 4th in Scotland in 2025	Same meaning; the p is mostly an English spelling habit
Wilson	Son of Will, 9th in England and Wales	3rd in Scotland in 2025	Common on both sides; check the county
Armstrong	A Northumberland and Cumberland name	A Border reiver family on the Scottish side	Border names ignore the Border
Moore	Middle English mor, open land or bog	The Scots form is Muir	In Ireland it can be an unrelated Irish name

For the Armstrongs and their neighbours, see our Border reiver surnames; for a Moore that came through Ulster, try the Irish or Scottish surname checker; and our Scottish surnames beginning with T cover Thomson.

How to find out what your English surname means

1. Say it out loud and look for a job, a place or a first name. Most English surnames are one of those three once you strip off -son, -s or -er.
2. Check where the name was in the 1800s. Once you ken (know) the county, you are halfway there. Surnames had barely moved by 1881 or 1890, so a name that clusters in one county, like Sykes or Tordoff, probably started near there.
3. Look the name up in the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names. It covers 45,600 surnames, and the UWE announcement says public libraries that subscribe give free access. The catch is that it sits behind a subscription, so if your library does not have it, ask before you pay for anything.
4. If the dictionary is no help, look for a place. Many rare names come from a single farm or hamlet, so try a map search with -ley, -ton, -by or -worth on the end.
5. Distrust a meaning that sounds too good. Royal servants, Norman knights and crusader ancestors turn up in family legends far more often than in the records, and everyone who has ever built a family tree has secretly hoped for a crusader.

Quick list: all 150 English surnames on this page

Surname	Type	Root language	Meaning	Where
Ackroyd	Topographic	Middle English	oak clearing (ake + royd)	England
Adams	Patronymic	Latin or Biblical	son of Adam	Widespread across England in 1890
Ainsworth	Locative	Old English	Aegen’s enclosure, a Lancashire place	Strongest in 1890: Lancashire; Shropshire
Aldridge	Locative	Old English	alder farmstead (alor + wic)	England
Allen	Given name	Middle English	from the given name Alan	About 40,500 people in England in 1853
Appleby	Locative	Old Norse	apple farm (aeppel + byr)	Strongest in 1890: Northumberland; Derbyshire
Archer	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	a bowman	Strongest in 1890: Derbyshire; Cumberland and Westmorland
Armitage	Locative	Middle English	hermitage	Strongest in 1890: West Riding
Armstrong	Nickname	Middle English	a nickname for someone with strong arms	Strongest in 1890: Northumberland; Cumberland and Westmorland
Arnold	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	eagle + power, a Germanic given name	Widespread across England in 1890
Ashby	Locative	Old Norse	ash-tree farm (aesc + byr)	Strongest in 1890: Northamptonshire; Hertfordshire
Ashton	Locative	Old English	ash-tree settlement (aesc + tun)	Strongest in 1890: Derbyshire; Lancashire
Askew	Topographic	Old Norse	oak wood (Old Norse eikiskógr)	North and East England
Atkinson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Atkin, a pet form of Adam	Strongest in 1890: Cumberland and Westmorland; Durham
Atwood	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived near a wood	England
Austin	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	from Augustine, via Old French Austin	England
Baker	Occupational	Old English	a baker, or the owner of a communal oven	No. 30 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Barker	Occupational	Middle English	a shepherd, or a tanner	Widespread across England in 1890
Barnes	Locative	Old English	from Barnes on the Thames, or the personal name Beorn	Widespread across England in 1890
Baxter	Occupational	Old English	a baker (northern England and Scotland)	Strongest in 1890: Lincolnshire; West Riding
Bell	Occupational	Middle English	a bell ringer or bellmaker, or someone who lived at the Bell inn	Widespread across England in 1890
Bellamy	Nickname, Norman or French	Norman or French	good friend	Strongest in 1890: Lincolnshire; Nottinghamshire
Bennett	Given name	Latin or Biblical	from a medieval form of Benedict	About 35,800 people in England in 1853
Booth	Topographic	Old Norse	someone who lived in a booth, a herdsman’s hut on summer pasture	Strongest in 1890: Staffordshire; Cheshire
Brown	Nickname	Middle English	brown hair or a dark complexion	No. 5 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Butler	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	a servant in charge of the wine cellar	Widespread across England in 1890
Cambridge	Locative	Old English	from Cambridge (Gloucestershire or the city)	914 in 1881, most in Gloucestershire
Carter	Occupational	Middle English	a carter	About 33,400 people in England in 1853
Cartwright	Occupational	Old Norse	a cart maker (Old Norse kartr + Old English wyrhta)	England
Chapman	Occupational	Old English	a merchant or trader	Widespread across England in 1890
Clegg	Nickname	Old Norse	gadfly or horsefly (Middle English clege or Old Norse kleggi)	Strongest in 1890: Lancashire and West Riding
Clutterbuck	Nickname	Other or unclear	a merchant’s account book, so a merchant	1,165 in 2011, mainly Gloucestershire
Cole	Nickname	Old English	from Old English col (coal), or a pet form of Nicholas	Widespread across England in 1890
Cook	Occupational	Old English	a cook	About 38,100 people in England in 1853
Cooper	Occupational	Middle English	a maker and repairer of barrels and casks	No. 28 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Coulson	Given name	Old Norse	in some cases from Old Norse kolr (swarthy) and sveinn (lad)	Strongest in 1890: Northumberland and Durham
Dale	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived in a dale	Strongest in 1890: Cheshire; North and East Ridings
Dawkins	Patronymic	Middle English	Dawkin: Daw (a form of Ralph) plus -kin	4,205 in 2011
Drake	Nickname	Old English	dragon (Old English draca), or a male duck	Strongest in 1890: Dorset; Devon
Elliott	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	a pet form of Elie (Elias)	England
Farraday	Nickname	Middle English	from faire dai, (have a) fair day, a cheerful person	135 in 1881, mainly Lancashire
Farrar	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	a smith or ironworker (Old French ferrier)	England
Finch	Nickname	Middle English	the bird, or a catcher and seller of finches	Strongest in 1890: Hertfordshire; Gloucestershire
Firth	Topographic	Old English	forest (fyrhthe)	Strongest in 1890: West Riding
Fisher	Occupational	Old English	a fisherman	Widespread across England in 1890
Fletcher	Occupational	Middle English	an arrow-maker	Widespread across England in 1890
Ford	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived near a ford	Widespread across England in 1890
Forster	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	a forester	Strongest in 1890: Northumberland; Cumberland and Westmorland
Fox	Nickname	Old English	the animal	Widespread across England in 1890
Freeman	Nickname	Middle English	a free man, not a serf	Widespread across England in 1890
Fuller	Occupational	Old English	someone who fulled (cleaned and thickened) cloth	Strongest in 1890: Sussex; Norfolk
Gilbert	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	pledge + bright or famous	Strongest in 1890: Northamptonshire; Warwickshire
Gill	Topographic	Old Norse	ravine (northern England), or a form of Giles or Julian	Strongest in 1890: West Riding; Nottinghamshire
Glover	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	a glove maker	Strongest in 1890: Leicestershire and Rutland; Lancashire
Goddard	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	god + hard or strong, a saint’s name brought by the Normans	Strongest in 1890: Berkshire; Dorset
Gray	Nickname	Old English	grey (hair), or from Graye-sur-Mer in Normandy	Widespread across England in 1890
Green	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived near the village green	No. 18 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Hall	Topographic	Old English	someone who lived or worked at the hall	No. 19 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Hammond	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	from the Norman given name Hamo or Hamon	Widespread across England in 1890
Harris	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Harry, the Middle English form of Henry	No. 21 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Hartley	Locative	Old English	hart clearing (heorot + leah)	Strongest in 1890: West Riding; Lancashire
Hawkins	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Hawkin (young Ralph), or from Hawkinge in Kent	28,843 in 2011; Somerset, Gloucestershire, Kent
Heath	Topographic	Old English	someone who lived on a heath	Strongest in 1890: Staffordshire; Berkshire
Hill	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived on or by a hill	No. 27 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Holmes	Topographic	Middle English	islet (holm), northern England	Widespread across England in 1890
Holt	Topographic	Old English	copse or woodland	England
Howard	Given name	Old Norse	high + guard (Havardr)	Widespread across England in 1890
Ingleby	Locative	Old Norse	village of the English (Englar + byr)	Strongest in 1890: West Riding
Ingram	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	Ing + raven	Strongest in 1890: Norfolk
Jackson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Jack	No. 24 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Johnson	Patronymic	Latin or Biblical	son of John	No. 11 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Jolly	Nickname, Norman or French	Norman or French	merry (Old French joli)	Strongest in 1890: Norfolk; Suffolk
Kay	Nickname	Old Norse	left-handed (Old Norse kei)	England
Kemp	Nickname	Old English	champion, warrior	Strongest in 1890: Sussex; Kent
Kendall	Locative	Old Norse	from Kendal, valley of the river Kent	Strongest in 1890: Leicestershire and Rutland; North and East Ridings
King	Nickname	Old English	someone who acted like a king or worked in the king’s household	About 42,300 people in England in 1853
Kirby	Locative	Old Norse	village with a church (kirk + by)	Strongest in 1890: North and East Ridings; Northamptonshire
Knight	Occupational	Old English	youth or servant, later a mounted soldier	Widespread across England in 1890
Knott	Given name	Old Norse	from the given name Knut	Strongest in 1890: Derbyshire
Knowles	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived at the top of a hill (knoll)	Strongest in 1890: Lancashire; West Riding
Lambert	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	land + bright, a saint’s name brought by the Normans	Strongest in 1890: West Riding; North and East Ridings
Lee	Topographic	Old English	meadow or clearing (lea)	About 35,200 people in England in 1853
Little	Nickname	Old English	small (or, ironically, big) or younger	Strongest in 1890: Cumberland and Westmorland; Northumberland
Mallory	Nickname, Norman or French	Norman or French	unlucky or unhappy (Old French maleure)	England
Marshall	Occupational	Middle English	a keeper of horses, or an officer of a royal household	Widespread across England in 1890
Martin	Given name	Latin or Biblical	from the given name Martin, linked to Mars	No. 29 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Mason	Occupational	Middle English	a stonemason	Widespread across England in 1890
Mitchell	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	from Michel (Michael), or a nickname meaning big	Widespread across England in 1890
Moore	Topographic	Middle English	open land or bog (Middle English mor)	About 39,300 people in England in 1853
Mortimer	Locative, Norman or French	Norman or French	from Mortemer in Normandy, dead pond	Strongest in 1890: Devon; North and East Ridings
Murgatroyd	Locative	Middle English	Margaret’s clearing, a Yorkshire place	England
Nash	Topographic	Middle English	at the ash tree	Strongest in 1890: Buckinghamshire; Hertfordshire
Neville	Locative, Norman or French	Norman or French	new town, from Neuville in Normandy	England
Newby	Locative	Old Norse	new settlement	Strongest in 1890: Lancashire
Newman	Nickname	Old English	a newcomer	Widespread across England in 1890
Nightingale	Nickname	Old English	someone with a good singing voice	Strongest in 1890: Lancashire; Sussex
Norris	Nickname, Norman or French	Norman or French	a northerner (Old French norreis)	Strongest in 1890: Lancashire; Somerset
Oldham	Locative	Old Norse	old holm, the Lancashire town (Aldehulme in Domesday)	Strongest in 1890: Warwickshire; Cheshire
Oliver	Given name, Norman or French	Norman or French	from Olivier, a paladin of Charlemagne	Widespread across England in 1890
Ormerod	Locative	Old Norse	Orm’s clearing, a Lancashire place	England
Osborne	Given name	Old Norse	god + bear (Asbjorn)	Widespread across England in 1890
Osmond	Given name	Old Norse	from Old Norse Ásmundr, god + protection	Strongest in 1890: Berkshire and Cheshire
Outhwaite	Locative	Old Norse	Ufi’s clearing, a lost Yorkshire place	Strongest in 1890: North and East Ridings
Palin	Given name	Middle English	from Paulin, little Paul	1,873 in 2011; north-west Midlands
Palmer	Nickname, Norman or French	Norman or French	a pilgrim who had been to the Holy Land and brought back a palm	Widespread across England in 1890
Parker	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	a gamekeeper	About 39,100 people in England in 1853
Percy	Locative, Norman or French	Norman or French	from Percy-en-Auge in Normandy	England
Pickering	Locative	Old English	from Pickering, the North Yorkshire town	Strongest in 1890: Northumberland; Durham
Quarmby	Locative	Old Norse	quern farm (kvern + byr), a Yorkshire place	England
Raven	Given name	Old Norse	from a Middle English personal name, from Old Norse hrafn, raven	Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk
Reeve	Occupational	Old English	a bailiff	Strongest in 1890: Sussex; Suffolk
Richardson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Richard	Widespread across England in 1890
Robinson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Robin	No. 12 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Russell	Nickname, Norman or French	Norman or French	red-haired (Norman nickname)	Strongest in 1890: Cambridgeshire; Sussex
Shaw	Topographic	Old English	a thicket or small wood	About 36,500 people in England in 1853
Skinner	Occupational	Old Norse	someone who stripped hides (Old Norse skinn)	Strongest in 1890: Kent and Devon
Smith	Occupational	Old English	a smith, a metalworker	No. 1 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Snow	Nickname	Middle English	snow-white hair or a very pale face	4,630 in 2011; Devon, Essex, London
Spencer	Occupational, Norman or French	Norman or French	someone who worked in a spence, or a butler or steward	Widespread across England in 1890
Starbuck	Locative	Other or unclear	from Tarbock in Lancashire	1,076 in 2011; Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire
Sutcliffe	Locative	Old English	south cliff (suth + clif)	Strongest in 1890: West Riding; Lancashire
Swain	Given name	Old Norse	a youth or young attendant (Old Norse Sveinn)	Strongest in 1890: Lincolnshire; Devon
Swift	Nickname	Old English	a swift or quick person	Strongest in 1890: Derbyshire; Lancashire
Sykes	Topographic	Middle English	someone by a sike, a small stream or ditch	Strongest in 1890: West Riding; Lincolnshire
Taylor	Occupational	Middle English	a tailor	No. 4 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Thatcher	Occupational	Old English	a thatcher	Strongest in 1890: Berkshire; Somerset
Thompson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Tom (Thomas)	No. 14 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Thorpe	Locative	Old English	village (thorp)	Strongest in 1890: Derbyshire; Leicestershire and Rutland
Thwaites	Topographic	Old Norse	a forest clearing (thwaite)	England
Tordoff	Locative	Other or unclear	from Tordoff Point on the Solway Firth	707 in 1881, over 95 per cent in the West Riding
Townsend	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived at the end of the village	Strongest in 1890: Oxfordshire; Warwickshire
Turner	Occupational	Middle English	a turner (lathe worker) or tumbler	No. 25 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Underhill	Topographic	Old English	someone who lived at the foot of a hill	Strongest in 1890: Devon
Venables	Locative, Norman or French	Norman or French	hunting ground, a Norman name	Strongest in 1890: Cheshire; Shropshire
Vernon	Locative, Norman or French	Norman or French	from Vernon in Normandy, a Norman baronial name	Strongest in 1890: Staffordshire; Cheshire
Walker	Occupational	Middle English	a fuller who trod (walked) cloth	No. 15 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Warburton	Locative	Old English	Waerburg’s estate	7,663 in 2011; Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire
Ward	Occupational	Old English	a guard (from ward, warden)	About 45,700 people in England in 1853
Watson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Wat	About 34,800 people in England in 1853
Webster	Occupational	Old English	a weaver	Widespread across England in 1890
White	Nickname	Old English	white hair or a pale complexion	No. 16 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Wilkinson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Wilkin	Widespread across England in 1890
Wilson	Patronymic	Middle English	son of Will	No. 9 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Wood	Topographic	Middle English	someone who lived or worked in a wood	No. 20 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Wright	Occupational	Old English	a builder or maker (wright)	No. 13 in England and Wales (deaths 1984 to 1997)
Wroe	Topographic	Old Norse	a nook or corner of land (Old Norse vrá)	Northern England
Yeo	Topographic	Old English	river, after the Rivers Yeo of the south-west	Strongest in 1890: Devon; Cornwall
York	Locative	Old Norse	from the city of York	Strongest in 1890: Northamptonshire
Young	Nickname	Old English	the younger, to tell a son from his father	Widespread across England in 1890
Zouch	Locative, Norman or French	Norman or French	a Norman baronial family name (Barons Zouche, created 1308)	England

FAQ about English surnames

What are the most common English surnames?

Smith, Jones, Williams, Taylor and Brown lead England and Wales, followed by Davies, Evans, Thomas, Wilson and Roberts, based on death indexes for 1984 to 1997. Smith has been first in every count since 1853, when the Registrar General estimated 253,600 Smiths in England. Several of the top ten are names most associated with Wales.

Where do English surnames come from?

Most English surnames record a job (Smith, Taylor), a place (Pickering), a landscape feature (Hill, Wood), a father’s name (Johnson), a first name (Bennett) or a nickname (Brown). They became hereditary from the Norman Conquest onwards, by about 1350 in the south of England and about 1450 in the north.

Are English surnames Norman?

Some are, but most are not. The Normans brought territorial names like Mortimer, Neville and Percy, French job titles like Butler and Spencer, and given names like Arnold and Gilbert. The great majority of common English surnames, though, are built from English words for jobs, places and family relationships.

What English surnames come from the Vikings?

Names from Old Norse include Kirby (church village), Askew (oak wood), Booth (herdsman’s hut), Gill (ravine), Thwaites (clearing), Osborne, Swain, Kay (left-handed) and Clegg (horsefly). Many are commonest in the north and east of England, the old Danelaw, where place names end in -by and -thorp.

What is the difference between Johnson and Johnston?

Johnson is an English patronymic meaning son of John, and it is 11th in England and Wales. Johnston is a Scottish place name from the lands of Johnstone in Annandale, carried by a powerful Border family. They look like spelling variants, but they come from completely different sources.

Final thoughts on English surnames

Most English surnames are plain descriptions that stuck: a job, a farm, a stream, a father, a joke. The common ones are common because their meaning was common, and the rare ones usually point to one corner of one county.

Use the checker to test your own name, and if it turns out to be Norse, Norman or Scottish after all, follow the links above. If your family insists the name is Celtic, the Celtic last names guide is the place to settle that particular blether (chat).

Sources

• Guild of One-Name Studies, Top surnames in England and Wales: comparisons
• Robert E. Matheson, Fifty most common surnames in England (Registrar General, indexes of 1853)
• Guild of One-Name Studies, Occupational surnames
• Guild of One-Name Studies, Toponyms
• Guild of One-Name Studies, Nicknames
• Patrick Hanks, Family Names (chapter 15)
• 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)
• Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, Viking surnames
• Wikipedia, Surname
• Wikipedia, Danelaw
• Wiktionary, English surnames (individual surname entries)
• H. B. Guppy, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain (1890), Internet Archive
• National Records of Scotland, Most Common Surnames 2025