My Surnames Stats

I've got a great mix of surnames in my family tree, from the most-common Jones and Hansen to the least, Bordewick and Seneft. So I thought I'd go through my surnames and see what their popularity (and origin, if I can find it) are in the world. I used this site for the data.

The number after each country is rounded up, and the numbers for each country are based on how many people per million in that country have that surname. I was hoping to find a site that would give a more exact list, but then I'd have had to piece together a lot more information myself, so I went with this instead.

Surname – Generation – Origin – Top two countries per million – US # per million

Hillinger/Hilinger – 1 – German – Austria (84), Hungary (7) – 0.52
-- When I looked up the 1-l variation, it says the surname is Hispanic. I'll have to look into that some more…I suppose it's possible that her branch has its origins in the Sephardic Jews. It gave no stats for the US

Bordewick/Bordewich – 2 – German – Norway (3/4), Germany (1) – 0.71/0.08
-- The Bordewich variant it suggests is Swedish, but I'm pretty sure in this case it's German.

Hansen – 3 – Danish – Denmark (42499), Norway (14100) – 646.82

Jones – 3 – Welsh – United Kingdom (9298), Australia (6132) – 4954.1

Kresch – 4 – German – US (1), Germany (.5) – 1.26
-- The site had no guess as to the origins of Kresch, but I'm fairly certain it’s a German surname.

Park – 4 – English – New Zealand (661), Australia (319) – 288.63
-- This site lists Park as English, but I'm fairly sure it's Irish/Scottish, though I could be wrong.

Howells/Howel – 4 – Welsh – United Kingdom (267/2), Australia (75) – 13.14/0.37
-- Howel lists as English, but I know it's a variant of Howells.

Seneft/Senft – 5 – German – Canada (43), Germany (42) – 8.16/0.01
-- No stats as Seneft, but I've paperwork with both.

Reich – 5 – German/Hebrew – Germany (278), Austria (197) – 65.22
-- Interesting. The only name in my Jewish line to actually be listed on this site as a Hebrew name. Never mind the connotations definitely feel anti-Hebrew…

Larsen – 5 – Danish – Denmark (22911), Norway (9532) – 258.48

Olsen – 5 – Danish – Norway (12890), Denmark (10114) – 284.92
-- This is interesting. First Danish surname to actually show bigger in another country. Ole must be more popular in Norway, I guess.

Curran – 5 – Irish – Ireland (1885), Australia (259) – 112.07
-- Just a fun tidbit—Curran also showed as having about 2 per million in Denmark.

Griffiths – 5 – Welsh – United Kingdom (1579), Australia (1040) – 62.18

Roberts – 5 – Welsh – United Kingdom (3235), Australia (2613) - 1474.64

Knudsen – 6 – Danish – Denmark (6278), Norway (1542) - 43.53

Jensen – 6 – Danish – Denmark (51992), Norway (5725) - 529.39

Christensen – 6 – Danish – Denmark (23588), Norway (1438) - 323.85
-- The site actually lists this as a Norwegian name. Interesting, that. But I think all three major Nordic countries shared names back and forth, so really, it's not uncommon in all three countries.

Nielsen – 6 – Danish – Denmark (50139), Norway (1455) – 191.37

Rasmussen – 6 – Danish – Denmark (18487), Norway (1642) – 168.7
-- This one also says it's Norwegian, but the same rule applies as with Christensen, really.

Schroder – 6 – German – Germany (1750), Denmark (509) – no ranking

Angell – 6 – English – Norway (127), New Zealand (61) – 34

Roness – 6 – ? – Norway (20), Canada (.5) – 0.41

Dunlop – 6 – Scottish – New Zealand (225), Australia (210) – 19.65

Blair – 6 – Scottish – New Zealand (478), Australia (334) – 306.05

Gabriel – 6 – English – Austria (372), Switzerland (322) – 79.21

Pugh – 6 – Welsh – United Kingdom (368), US (156) – 156.26

Pedersen – 7 – Danish – Denmark (32691), Norway (8523) – 96.64

Matisen – 7 – Danish – Denmark (.3), Germany (.04) – 0.02

Andersen – 7 – Danish – Denmark (29852), Norway (9283) – 167.42

Sorensen – 7 – Danish – Denmark (22300), Norway (2529) – 118.04

Ivarsen – 7 – Danish – Denmark (19), Norway (15) - 0.13

Linkhausen/Linckhusen/Linkhus – 7 – German – No stats found

Tiller – 7 – English – Norway (113), Canada (41) – 29.06

Evan – 7 – Welsh – Slovenia (17), US (6) - 5.62

Lewis – 7 – Welsh – United Kingdom (2484), US (1881) – 1880.74

Madsen – 8 – Danish – Denmark (13102), Norway (864) – 76.94

Frandsen – 8 – Danish – Denmark (1736), Norway (18) – 11.42

Poulsen – 8 – Danish – Denmark (6749), Norway (88) – 15.51
-- Another listing as Norwegian instead of Danish.

Brunn – 8 – German – Germany (33), Hungary (28) – 5.39
-- This one actually lists as English, but I'm quite certain it's German.

Torresen – 8 – Norwegian – Norway (30), US (.17) – 0.17

Edwart – 8 – Welsh – no data found

Jepsen – 9 – Danish – Denmark (1700), New Zealand (22) – 13.24

Therkelsen – 9 – Danish – Denmark (224), Norway (25) – 0.95

Mathiasen – 9 – Danish – Denmark (761), Sweden (15) – 2.09

Mortensen – 9 – Danish – Denmark (5952), Norway (791) – 40.9

Brue – 9 – German – US (4), Argentina (2) – 3.98
-- This one's listed as French, which I find interesting.

Arntsen – 10 – Danish – Norway (450), Sweden (10) – 1.36
-- This is the first of my Danish surnames to not show Danish at all in the stats.

Michaelsen – 10 – Danish – Denmark (363), Norway (177) – 4.25
-- Listed as German.

Jorgensen – 10 – Danish – Denmark (17572), Norway (2698) – 97.42

Faestersen – 10 – Danish – no data found

Grot – 10 – German – Poland (33), France (6) – 0.34

Harm – 10 – English? – Austria (31), Germany (26) – 5.38
-- This one's from my Norwegian branch, so I'm more inclined to believe it's a Germanic surname than an English one.

Sebech – 10 – ? – Denmark (.33) – no other data

Stats –

* Top Ten US Surnames: Jones, Lewis, Roberts, Hansen, Jensen, Christensen, Blair, Park, Olsen, and Larsen.

* Bottom Ten US Surnames: Matisen, Ivarsen, Torresen, Grot, Roness, Hillinger/Hillinger, Bordewick/Bordewich, Therkelsen, Kresch, and Arntsen. I think for the Scandinavian names, it's more spelling than rarity in some cases, and others have mostly disappeared as modern surnames, but the others—Grot, Roness, Hillinger, Kresch and Bordewick are all pretty uncommon in general.

* Countries listed as most populous for my surnames: Norway (25), Denmark (24), Germany (8), Australia (7), US (6), UK & New Zealand (5), Austria (4), Canada (3), and Hungary and Sweden (2). Also mentioned are Ireland, Switzerland, Slovenia (which surprised me), Argentina, Poland, and France. I'll definitely have to see if I can find people in these areas looking for these surnames. Never know what you'll find, right?

Overall, this has definitely given me a few things to think about. Only a couple of the countries really surprised me, and only one completely. Others were just surprising in that they were so prominent. I'll definitely have to keep these stats in mind when looking at my surnames in the future. An interesting experiment, and definitely worth trying out if you're trying to find new leads, I think.