10 of West Yorkshire’s most common surnames

Now is your chance to find out as we can reveal 10 of the most common last names held by people in the region.

Forebears is a genealogy website that has listed the most common surnames in West Yorkshire.

Some of them are quite popular and are held by many people across England.

However, others aren’t quite so common places across the UK and reflect the distinctive character of West Yorkshire residents.

According to the site, there are around 86,700 unique surnames in West Yorkshire and there are 26 people per name.

Here are the top 10 most common surnames in West Yorkshire- as well as how many people have them.

1. Smith- 27,190

As this is the most common surname in England, it’s unsurprising that it also took West Yorkshires number one spot.

According to the Forebears website, Smith is an occupational surname it comes from the word for someone who works with metal, such as a blacksmith.

There are estimated to be around 300,000 Smiths in England.

2. Hussain- 13,357

Currently, this is the 61st most common surname in the world and it is most prevalent in Pakistan and India.

3. Taylor- 12,866

This surname is derived from the occupation of a 'tailor' or 'cutter of cloth'.

It's the third most common in England and 345th most common surname in the world.

4. Wilson- 11,085

This surname is derived from ‘the son of William’ and it is the third most popular in England.

It is the most common in the United States and more that 973,757 people bear the surname Wilson.

5. Khan- 10,927

This is the 17th most common surname in the world and more than 22 million people across the globe have this name.

It is most prevalent in Pakistan.

This surname is linguistically of Turkic origin and referred to a leader of Turkic people.

6. Walker- 10,692

This surname is derived from either a fuller, from the Middle High German walker, meaning "a fuller of cloth", or an officer whose duty consisted of walking or inspecting a certain part of a forest.

It is most prevalent in the United Stated but a high proportion of people also have this name in Jamaica.

7. Brown- 10,651

This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor- 'the son of Brun' (i.e. Brown).

It is the fourth most popular name in England and 206th most popular in the world.

8. Wood- 10,525

According to the Forebears website, this name is derived from a geographical location and was a name for someone who lived in or by a wood.

It’s common to every mediaeval register all over the country.

It’s the 69th most popular name in America but it also common in Australia.

9. Robinson- 9,671

Robinson is the 10th most popular surname in England and more than one million people across the world bear the surname.

It is derived from an ancestor and a diminutive of Robert or ‘son of Robert’.

10. Jones- 9,623

This may be the 10th most popular surname in West Yorkshire but it is the second most common in England.

It’s the 208th most common in the world and a high percentage of people in Wales also bear the name.

Jones is a patronymic surname, meaning the son of John, or Johan or Jone.

Did your surname make the top 10?

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