The three largest surnames in the UK are Smythe, Jones and Williams
The origin of British surnames. People who lived in the UK in the early days were born with only one name, such as: John ( John). Hilda. At that time, people lived in groups and built villages on the spot. Because the village was sparse and small, there were only a handful of people named John and Hilda, so it was not easy for people to confuse them. As the years passed, small villages expanded into large villages, and some large villages became towns. In this way, there are several people with the same name in the same place. So how do people distinguish these people with the same name? The first way is to add one's professional name after the original noun. For example, if two people are both named John, one is a weaver and the other is a cook. People called them John the Weaver and John the Cook respectively. Similar examples include: John the Miller, John the Shepherd, and John the Thatcher. Soon the names became: John Weaver, John Cook, John Miller, John Shepherd, John Thatcher ?Thatcher). In this way, the second name in English, the surname now used by the British, was born, and it was quickly used on children. For example: John Weaver's children may be named: Hilda Weaver, Charles Weaver, etc. There is a name called Wright in Old English, which originally means "worker, maker". The person who makes a two-wheeled carriage is called a cartwright, the person who makes wheels is called a wheelwright, and the person who builds a ship is called a shipwright. The British still use many surnames like Wright, Cartwright and Wainwright. A more common surname is Smith. The original meaning of the word "smith" in English is a person who makes things with metal materials, such as: goldsmith (goldsmith), blacksmith (blacksmith), tinsmith (tinsmith), coppersmith (coppersmith). Smithing has been an important profession for a long time in history. Although it is rarely mentioned nowadays, it is still used in British surnames.
The second method is to add the name of the residence after the original name.
In this way, people named Tom in the same village can be distinguished according to where they live. For example, Tom lives under a cliff, Tom lives near the forest, and Tom lives in a field. A series of surnames named after places emerged:
Wood
Field Field
Ford
Street Street Street
Cliff Cliff Cliff
Tree Tree
Lane Lane
Bush Bush
Brook Brook
Pond Pond
Lake Lake
Forest Forest Forest
Short Short
Brown Brown
Long Long
Longfellow Longfellow
Williamson (Williamson).