The Most Common Last Name in Every Country

https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/most-common-last-name-in-every-country-map

by gmays • 2 years ago

9 10 2 years ago

mentalfloss.com

xeromal• 2 years ago

The map isn't loading for me strangely. Tried incognito mode as well.

Does this link work for anyone? https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/v1714485913/...

pavel_lishin2• 2 years ago

Works fine for me on the east coast of the U.S., not on a VPN.

pavel_lishin2• 2 years ago

Huh, that's interesting. "Ivanov" was going to be my guess for Russia, followed by maybe "Kuznetsov" - but the actual result here is "Ivanova", which is the feminine version.

(In Russia, your last name changes based on your gender. If Irina marries Ivan Ivanov, her last name will become Ivanova. This is considered to be the same last name. And yes, it can cause annoying issues when traveling abroad, especially with children, when your last names don't seem to match.)

I wonder if it has something to do with the slightly higher-than-average male mortality rate?

telesilla• 2 years ago

Same in Iceland (with the patronymic surname on the feminine), but not Bulgaria or Belarus.

jankyxenon• 2 years ago

A lot of people were smithing in the English world. Or perhaps they were just especially fecund.

junar2• 2 years ago

The map seems to miscategorize "Tan" from Singapore and Malaysia [1]. The surname Tan is actually the same surname as "Chen" (陳/陈) in Taiwan [2], just pronounced differently. The mapmaker seems to have confused it with another, less common Chinese character [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surname...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surname...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tan_(surname)

_lvbh2• 2 years ago

You seem to know a lot about Chinese/Singaporean names. There’s something that I’ve been wondering for a while. I know a few people with the same surname in Chinese “黄” but different pinyin on their ID with either “Ng”, “Huang”, or “Eng”. Afaik they are siblings with the same parents so why are their last names different?

junar2• 2 years ago

All three are valid choices for 黄. In principle, people may choose different romanizations, but it does seem unusual for siblings in the same family choose differently.

"Huang" comes from the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation, which is by far the most commonly spoken form worldwide, and widely preferred in schools, media, business, etc. One possible reason to prefer this spelling is for name recognition from numerous other Mandarin Chinese speakers, or even non-Chinese speakers familiar with common Chinese surnames.

"Ng" and "Eng" come from Min Nan Chinese, which is a common spoken form among local communities in Singapore and Malaysia, among other places. Min Nan hasn't been as widely standardized as Mandarin, so spellings may vary. Some people may prefer these spellings, which more closely aligns with how their family, friends, and other locals pronounce their names.

ghoul2• 2 years ago

sigh. They picked "devi" for India. "Devi" is not a last name. Literally it means "goddess". Its used as a suffix to indicate "woman"/"lady". If they picked "Devi" for India, they should have picked "Mr"/"Mrs" for the US.

The Most Common Last Name in Every Country

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