Tuesday, March 16, 2010

What are the most common last names in the US?


Search: most popular last name in america

Why: In the Netherlands, "Calvin & Hobbes" is called "Casper & Hobbes." Mischa says that might be because Calvin is not a popular name over there. Eli says it's not a popular name over here, either. They're named after philosophers, for chrissake, and they certainly have (had) Calvinism in the Netherlands.
He says:
This would be like translating Lost, but renaming "Locke" as "Smith".

Edit: Scratch that, Adam Smith was a philosopher too.
Answer: According to the 2000 Census, they are!
  1. Smith
  2. Johnson
  3. Williams
  4. Brown
  5. Jones
  6. Miller
  7. Davis
  8. Garcia
  9. Rodriguez
  10. Wilson
  11. Martinez
  12. Anderson
  13. Taylor
  14. Thomas
  15. Hernandez
  16. Moore
  17. Martin
  18. Jackson
  19. Thompson
  20. White
  21. Lopez
  22. Lee
  23. Gonzalez
  24. Harris
  25. Clark
  26. Lewis
  27. Walker
  28. Robinson
  29. Perez
  30. Hall
Source: InfoPlease

The More You Know: The first on the list that came up with no Wikipedia hits of any philosopher - even still living, even just a college professor - was Garcia.

at

6 comments:

  1. joelMarch 16, 2010 at 3:38 PM

    i wonder what is the least common last name in the US

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 16, 2010 at 4:33 PM

    Melton

    ReplyDelete
  3. JchmBlmApril 12, 2010 at 4:40 PM

    The 'Calvin & Hobbes'-thing could also have something to do with pronunciation. In the Netherlands a name like 'Calvin' would probably be pronounced like 'Kahlvin', because we don't really use a lot of English names, and therefore tend to pronounce them in a Dutch way. The same goes for Casper, really, but Casper (pronounced as 'Kahsper') is a normal name here, so...that makes more sense, then, I guess..

    Changing the names of characters to something more Dutch-sounding is also done quite frequently in books (other than Harry, no one has the same name in the Dutch translation of the Harry Potter books as they do in the English versions)

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownApril 12, 2010 at 5:05 PM

    What are their names? Hermione, Albus, and Hagrid aren't common English names either (if names at all). That's their charm.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JchmBlmApril 14, 2010 at 2:40 PM

    Here are some of the Dutch names that sound/look nothing like the English names:

    Hermione Granger - Hermelien Griffel
    Albus Dumbledore - Albus Perkamentus
    Neville Longbottom - Marcel Lubbermans
    Luna Lovegood - Loena Leeflang
    Cedric Diggory - Carlo Kannewasser
    Vernon Dursley - Herman Duffeling
    Minerva McGonagall - Minerva Anderling
    Dolores Umbridge - Dorothea Omber


    Some names are only changed slightly:

    Draco Malfoy - Draco Malfidus
    Sirius Black - Sirius Zwarts
    Severus Snape - Severus Sneep
    Ron Weasley - Ron Wemel


    I guess I can sort of understand it, because I don't really like reading English names in Dutch books, but some names sound so weird and nothing like the English version that it's just weird.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownOctober 5, 2010 at 11:49 AM

    lol, Marcel Lubbermans

    ReplyDelete