Smith

surnameEnglishoccupational/smɪθ/

Smith is the English word for someone who works metal, and as a surname it names the trade: the family’s ancestor was a smith.2 3 It comes from Old English smiþ, and it was the most common surname in the United States in the 2010 Census.1

Proto-Germanic *smiþaz, to Old English smiþ, to Middle English smith.3

Rank 1surname in the 2010 US Census 2,442,977Americans named Smith in 2010 828.19per 100,000 people in the Census surname file

A page from the Nuremberg Mendel house book: a bearded smith in a blue tunic and apron strikes a bar of iron on an anvil, with a bellows overhead and a forge hood behind him. A ring marks the word Smid in the line at the top.

Meaning

What does the surname Smith mean?

It means a smith: a craftsperson who shapes metal with a hammer, most often a blacksmith.3 The name began as a job description, so the first people called Smith were smiths, and it passed on to their children.

Wikipedia calls Smith an occupational surname that began in England, from Old English smið or smiþ, “one who works in metal”.2 Wiktionary traces the English word back through Old English to Proto-Germanic *smiþaz.3

Is a smith someone who strikes?

Wikipedia says the word is related to Old English smitan, the ancestor of smite, because a smith strikes metal.2 Wiktionary does not link them. It gives smith a possible root meaning “to smear, spread”, and lists smite separately under a root meaning “to strike, rub”.3 4 The strike story is neat, so treat it as a guess, not a settled fact.

Why was one trade so common?

Every village needed one. Wikipedia quotes a statement from around 1900 that the name was “common to every village in England”, and says it was common on the Continent too, in other forms.2 A trade held by one household in each parish, multiplied across a country, produces a very large name.

In the US

How common is Smith in the United States?

In the 2010 Census 2,442,977 people had the surname Smith, 828.19 for every 100,000 people in the Census surname file. The next surname, Johnson, was held by 1,932,812.1

The Census Bureau splits everyone with a surname into six groups. These are the shares for Smith, as the Bureau lists them.1

Group	Share of all Smiths
White, not Hispanic	70.9%
Black, not Hispanic	23.11%
Hispanic, any race	2.4%
Two or more races	2.19%
American Indian or Alaska Native	0.89%
Asian or Pacific Islander	0.5%

The name is held by many Black Americans. Wikipedia says that this can be explained either by the surnames of slave owners or by the trade itself, since some southern Black Americans took Smith to reflect their or their father’s work.2 The Census table shows how many, not why, so we do not pick between the two.

Other languages

What is Smith in other languages?

Most European languages made their own surname out of the same trade. Wikipedia’s table lists dozens; here is one for each family.2

SchmidtGerman
SmitDutch
SmedDanish
LefebvreFrench
FerraroItalian
HerreroSpanish
Mac GabhannIrish
GofWelsh
KowalskiPolish
KovářCzech
КузнецовRussian
KovačCroatian

Polish Kowalski is the same trade in another language: kowal is a smith. In German the surname is Schmidt, and Wiktionary lists German Schmied, Dutch smid and Icelandic smiður as cognates of the English word.2 3

Myth check

Did clerks at Ellis Island change foreign names into Smith?

Officials at Ellis Island rewrote long foreign surnames as Smith.No evidence

Wikipedia calls this a popular misconception, and adds that many immigrants did pick a more American name themselves. It names German Schmidt and Polish Kowalski as two that were often anglicized to Smith.2

Joel Weintraub, writing for JewishGen in 2015 and 2017, concludes that many immigrants did change names, but not during processing at Ellis Island. In his account the shipping clerks at the port of departure made the manifest, the inspectors worked from it, and he finds no paperwork that would record a name change made by an official.6

The name was usually changed later, by the people who carried it.

Records

How old is the surname, and who carried it?

Wikipedia says Smith was already an occupational surname in Anglo-Saxon times, before inherited surnames were the rule, and names Ecceard Smith of County Durham, recorded in 975, as an example.2

Adam Smith: Scottish economist and philosopher, 1723 to 1790, called by many the “father of economics”.8
John Smith: English soldier, explorer and writer, about 1579 to 1631, admiral of New England.9
Joseph Smith: American religious leader, 1805 to 1844, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.10
Maggie Smith: British actress, 1934 to 2024.11
Will Smith: American actor, rapper and film producer, born 1968.12

In words

Which English words hide smith inside?

smithy: The forge. Wikipedia derives it from Old English smiðē, from Proto-Germanic *smiðjon.2
blacksmith: Wiktionary’s main sense of smith is exactly this: a craftsperson who works metal, especially a blacksmith.3
wordsmith: Someone who uses words skilfully, dated by Wiktionary to the late 19th century. It is the word word plus smith, as if words were metal.5

Test yourself

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Twelve words, each known by fewer Americans than the last. Your estimate is set against 221,268 people tested in a published study of how many Americans know each word.13