Why Do So Many People Have the Same Last Name?

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Why are there so many of the same surnames? Why do some surnames go extinct? Why do we call surnames "last names?" Mr. Beat, who has a strange last name, answers these questions in this video. Oh, and Jabril helps out.
Check out his video here:
• I Made A Simulation To...
Music by Drew Gerber. Produced by Matt Beat. All images found in the public domain, used under fair use guidelines, or original content from Matt Beat.
Fair use photo credits:
Michael Rivera
Gage Skidmore
Tanner Morrow
How rare is your surname? Find out here:
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Check out the book: What's in a Surname?: A Journey from Abercrombie to Zwicker
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Sources:
howmanyofme.com/
www.pbs.org/pov...
forebears.io/su...
motherboard.vi...
www.atlasobscu...
• Surname Extinction: Wh...
surnames.behin...
/ why_is_smith_the_most_...
www.reference....
www.historytoda...
en.wikipedia.o...
I’m Mr. Beat. Some people don’t believe me when I tell them that’s really my last name. Apparently it’s really rare. Only 422 other people living in the United States share my last name. Only 3,661 other people living in the entire world share my last name.
According to the website Forebears, not four bears, Forebears, Beat is the 111,426th most popular surname in the world. It’s most popular in Cameroon, believe it or not. By the way, surname, aka “family name” is a much more accurate way to describe it. A surname is basically the name passed down from generation to generation. It’s inaccurate to call it a “last name” everywhere because in many countries the surname is said first.
So why is my surname so rare? Hold up, the better question is why so many many people have the SAME last name. There are so many names to choose from, yet we have so many Johnsons. (I’m telling you, he should just change his surname to The Rock). Let’s look at Smith, the most popular last name in the United States. Here’s my friend Kevin Smith. No, not THAT Kevin Smith. No, not THAT Kevin Smith. No no no. Not that one! Yes, that Kevin Smith. Geez. So yeah, my friend’s name is so common that are 23 Kevin Smiths currently classified as “notable people” on Wikipedia. Odds are, there’s a Kevin Smith in the town you currently live in. Why is my friend’s name so common? First of all, Kevin was the 24th most popular boys name the year he was born, so that increased the number out there. But this video is about surnames. Smith is so common because many surnames came from what people did for a living. Smith is an occupational name, named after working with metal, and because metal work jobs historically have existed a lot of places and because the occupation has historically been so important, the name spread.
Ok, so that explains Smith, but what about Li or Gonzalez or Zhang or Nguyen or Hernandez? Huh Mr. Smarty Pants? Oops, wrong surname. I mean, huh Mr. Beat?
Well let’s take Nguyen. Between 30 to 40 percent of the entire country of Vietnam have the last name Nguyen. To put that in perspective, less than 1 percent of Americans have the last name Smith. Why Nguyen?
Well, for generations, Vietnam was just minding its own business, when China decides to be all imperialistic on them and take over. At the time of the beginning of Chinese imperialism, the Vietnamese did not have surnames. China literally gave them surnames so that it would be easier to keep track of them. They gave many of them Nguyen, a Chinese name. You saw this with other imperialist powers around the world. That’s why most Filipinos have Spanish names, for example. This can even be extended to slavery. Many African Americans have surnames from the owners of their slave ancestors. Well that’s pretty messed up. Geez.
In some cases, people changed their surnames so they wouldn’t get killed. In other cases, people changed their surname, because they weren’t particularly attached to the old one so they took the one of someone they admired. This also explains why there are so many Nguyens. Still, I feel like there is some important information missing here.

[@iammrbeat]

How rare is YOUR last name? Post your rankings here.

[@carloseduardoaguiar8712]

Ricarte: 32,575th, with only 300 in the US

[@subscribefornoreason551]

Mr. Beat 19 most common in America and 60 in the world :(

[@iammrbeat]

Aguiars in the house!

[@iammrbeat]

It's alright. Common can be extraordinary! ;)

[@reef755]

Crum -23,845th most common surname in the world

[@MrWildcatproductions]

When you said James Smith 😱

[@JeremyMcCant]

Oh shoot lol 😂

[@charlespatriotsfanforlifew1195]

James Smith lmfao

[@lemonder7116]

Had a kid in my class named James smith.

[@hunterflowerson4460]

I lost it from that lol

[@kould3168]

THATS MY BFF’S EXACT NAME

[@tehace]

Being a James Smith myself, that part was suuuuuuper creepy!

[@3seven5seven1nine9]

I thought you were a Clay Smith

[@MuhammadFarukh]

Imposter

[@KolchaksGhost]

What is this dark trickery

[@claytonsmith3882]

Does that make me Jimmothy Smith since you're just a shorthand for my name?

[@wezley_snipes]

High how are you guys?

[@MisterMalleable]

My surname “Loeffler” is German for “one who makes spoons”

[@cpt.flippybirds9015]

Sam Loeffler. Good spoons.. Heimbold, Good home.. ☺🐦

[@nova_rainbowflare2938]

Mine is schrieber wich is also german but idk wut it means

[@BlaBlaBla91992]

@@nova_rainbowflare2938 Schreiber means someone who writes. Basically a scribe. More than likely you have someone in your family from Germany who wrote books or transcribed them.

[@rxvvy_]

The English surname being 'Spooner' which isn't all that uncommon

[@binozia-old-2031]

I know some one with that name

[@fermainjackson2899]

Most common family names or surnames in Spanish end with: "EZ" like Hernandez, Gonzalez, Fernandez.... Etc

[@iammrbeat]

This is true

[@achaatipimbinhaxiti9361]

Mine ends in iano

[@disney1422]

Sanchez, ramirez, altarez, perez, lorez

[@artieche9]

Martinez!

[@mikeoxsmal8022]

It's a patronomic like son, s, mac, fitz, ski etc

[@lindsaymanning704]

Great video Mr. Beat! My school has a teacher with the last name Manning and I sometimes get asked if we're related. She told me the reason why her last name is Manning is that her husband had a very German-sounding surname and could not find work. So he changed it to the English-sounding Manning and eventually found a job. Manning is definitely not an obscure name, I actually have a cousin named Peyton Manning who is a girl. However, I am probably not closely related to the famous football player.

[@iammrbeat]

Fascinating that he changed his name so he could find work. It's sad how prejudiced people are that they don't trust someone based on their name alone. Anyway, I looked up your last name, and it's ranked 4,203rd most common in the world. So yep, there are a lot of Mannings!

[@sarahotto6006]

So I know I'm really late on this but you reminded me of a funny story. I had 2 friends in high school in my class of 250 that both had Korean ancestry. One was adopted and the other's father served in Korea and married her mother there. They both had the last name of Campbell, so everyone, including teachers, just assumed they were twins. I guess Campbell is the 652th most common last name, but I still think the odds were really low for this scenario.

[@elicarlson7682]

together we make Eli Manning!

[@Broomful]

I also heard the surname "Hitler" Significantly dropped after nazi germany. just wanted to add some random information

[@kelly2fly]

My first, middle, and last names were so common that when I was in 2nd grade the teacher assigned each of us a number to use. It was the easiest way she could distinguish whose paper was whose.

[@excelisfun]

Thanks for the cool video, Most Rare Beat!!!!

[@LordHRthend]

My surname is “Hatter” and there are not many of us in the world. We’re all mad.

[@paperheartzz]

Did anyone here send this video to a James Smith, just to make it true?

[@iammrbeat]

I'm still waiting for a comment by him.

[@jimmyrc3]

I am here

[@ap4010]

My grandfather, Alfred Smith, used to claim that in the beginning, everyone's last name was Smith. As they sinned, they had to change their last name. 😅

[@janhillman8240]

😂😂😂😂😳

[@RM-ti8nf]

Haha love it 😂

[@Mythical444]

Don’t forget Squidward is a very common name in Bikini Bottom.

[@brandonmartinez8217]

My last name, Martinez, is surprisingly not so common here on Oklahoma, but there's a lot of Ramirez. This type of video is interesting and should've been longer

[@FM-eg7bs]

Brandon Martinez how many martinez not known in my life 😂😂😂hahaha very common in Mexico and Spanish speaking countries

[@jjgems5909]

Haha! I’m Ramírez. My family is from a small town in Zacatecas. And a lot of my family immigrated to Oklahoma and Illinois. My grandmothers family as well which are “Alvarez” 😂

[@robertoadg4267]

My cousins are Australian and they have a rare last name there (Martinez too), but in my state that’s an incredibly common last name. So it’s normal

[@akidim13]

Beans everywhere huh

[@LevonJohnTANNY]

Agree because here in CT, We have many Martinez and Ramirez families and the two names are very popular! To hear that Martinez isn’t popular in Oklahoma is like…😮 wow, really? lol

[@grzegorzcichosz8240]

it’s quite funny that the most popular surname in poland is Kowalski that has like exactly the same etymology xddd Kowal = smith

[@roosar1060]

Ani razu nie widzialem nikogo z takim nazwiskiem stary

[@victoriousstyles35]

When your last name is Smith.

[@highprogressive]

I died at "Mr. Poop"

[@ganaraminukshuk0]

The closest thing I found to "Poop" was "Poope", which, at the time of me commenting, is ranked 3743211th with only ~7 people bearing the name.

[@cpt.flippybirds9015]

The Radical Centrist. Me 2 Holy shhhhhhh😇

[@rexmundi3108]

I think Washington made the right choice.

[@barnacles1352]

You must be a kid

[@Kopzzzz]

Hey Mr. Beat, long time subscriber, you are creating real quality content, you deserve more subs!! I hope your channel will grow :)

[@iammrbeat]

Thank you so much for staying with me and the kind words. Things have picked up a bit lately, so hopefully that continues. :D

[@johnmattera6772]

@@iammrbeat the year is 2022 and Mr beat is the dictator of the world. Mr beat has committed countless atrocities like eugenics and genocide against the Ginger (red hair and freckles) community. Also best eaten donuts is back in business and Mr beat now has more subscribers than PewDiePie now!

[@djtrankilo231]

You should've went into more detail with Latino surnames like Gonzalez, Hernandez and others. My mother's maiden name is Perez. That's why I'm curious.

[@pantsoff]

The odds of pointing at someone in the US and predicting correctly that his or her name is "James Smith" is most definitely less than 1 in 647

[@Muskar2]

"his or her"? Only 0.3% of those named James are female. Mary Smith is a lot more common for the females.

[@pantsoff]

Muskar yup, you wouldn't be picking out of only men, so I fail to see how gender plays a role in this

[@Muskar2]

I merely made a comment because I noticed you said "his or her". Instead of e.g. "their". I thought it was a curious phrasing when James is almost exclusively a female name, and your point seemed to be about broad statistics and not gender. With my comment I guess I was really saying "why did you say "his or her"? Isn't your point that you believe less than 1 in 647 are named James Smith?" but then became curious about what the equivalent female name really was, which I posted thinking it could be a better way to make the same point. And then with your new comment you seem to assume that my point was about putting attention on genders in some way. So we both confused each other I guess.

[@pantsoff]

"Their" is plural. When you point at someone you point at a single person. I wasn't really trying to be gender neutral; I was merely trying not to double the odds of the point I was trying to make. I don't recall being confused, but I hope this is clearing things up for you.

[@Muskar2]

If you're not confused, then I'm not sure you understood what I said. By the way, "they" and all its derivative forms, including "their", can be a singular pronoun which is indeed gender neutral.

[@DarkDragon5551669]

super late to the party. an additional information about the "Nguyen" for us Vietnamese that I have learned so far: there are probably about 3 more reasons aside from what you shared: 1. back in the 13th century, there was a ruling dynasty changed (Ly to Tran), then the king forced anyone bearing Ly surname to changed to Nguyen to make people less likely to remember the old regime 2. as you have already said, criminals or someone on the run usually changed their surname to that common one to have a new identity 3. in the 17th century, there were the Nguyen lords (predecessor of the Nguyen dynasty later on) who ruled southern Vietnam, which was mosly jungle of the time. The lords usually gift the royal surname to those who have made land clearance of other significant developments for his land

[@Broomful]

Thanks for some extra background information Nice to learn new stuff

[@tomfrazier1103]

I and an Afro-Rican (I'm white) were both knocked out in a car smash. I'm told it confused the rescue personnel briefly. It is a sort of Scottish last name, we both share. When Britain ended slavery in it's Empire in 1833, black people with English surnames dispersed in the Carribbean basin, including Spanish speaking nations. I met a pretty girl from Costa Rica named Menzies, a very 18th Century Anglo name.

[@speedking439]

Frazier & Menzies are both scottish but smith is the most common surname in scotland due to to people with the old rebel clans surnames (McThis McThat etc) having to change their surnames to find work after the highland clearances so smith was the most common choice to take.

[@sorryforbatenglish]

Excellent video, as always much appreciated, please keep em coming :)

[@Theoxuesu]

At long last, I have found my people.

[@godgodson1765]

I've been harassed by police for having the same first and last name as several people with warrants.

[@Broomful]

Gosh..That Sucks man I'm sorry that happened to you this is 1 of many reasons why i want a uncommon last name I don't wanna have to deal with that

[@TheBigRedskull]

Only 98 people in the world share my last name. Most in the Netherlands. However, my family knows that some of our relatives spell the name differently, so it may be more common.

[@oddbloochicken]

Ey im part of rare last name squad, only 86 share my last name world wide (O'Garra) pretty sure the 26 living in NZ i could name as my family members lmao

[@Tdwt18]

I have never met someone who had either of my last names(Moncayo and Barzola) other than family. I sometimes wish my last names were more common because it seems like no website can tell me what it means. My best guess for moncayo is my ancestors living around a mountain massif in Aragon, Spain and I still have no clue about Barzola.

[@iammrbeat]

I love having my rare last name. People are more likely to remember you.

[@NeoZeta]

But there's like 49,871 with the name Moncayo and 20,327 people with Barzola. I doubt all those are your family... God I hope not... Only 1,443 people have mine and I have already found a few people with mine... Who usually proceed to ask about my ancestry and who are my parents, because they know how difficult it is to find. Usually Brazilians, though I'm not Brazilian, but I can understand why.

[@jcvp2493]

There is a lot of Moncayos on Ecuador maybe you should visit ;)

[@zeras1823]

My last name could be one of the rarest in the world, approximately 10 people have it in the world.

[@ratedr7845]

What is it?

[@zeras1823]

Rated R Lynet

[@ratedr7845]

@@zeras1823 I stand corrected

[@zeras1823]

Rated R It’s cool cause I found out a couple weeks ago that it meant lightning in Danish

[@ratedr7845]

@@zeras1823 that's fucking cool, meanwhile I get charles

[@janhillman8240]

The Navajos were very often named by the military census taker, giving them their own last name! They were also named by a physical trait, or a relationship to someone else. Begay, a very common Navajo name actually traces back to ‘his son’ as they would point to their father. Let’s not mention Ellis island that misspelled or change the spelling of many names of the immigrants. One of my family names, Hancey, was Hancer in England. My ancestor wrote the ‘r’ quite with a flourish and it became a ‘y’ therefore a new branch became Hancey. Loved your post!

[@beforeyourimmigrants8471]

Black Americans very often got our last names from the Indians that owned our family during slavery. In my case I have their last name and they kicked us out the tribe.

[@panepisteme]

Great explanations! BTW similar to the case of slaves, a big part of surnames in Latin America were imposed by the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors. Unfortunately, even Amerindians among us have Spanish surnames.

[@anishbagri6724]

Great video as always! I found out that I'm the ONLY "Anish Bagri" in the ENTIRE US! …Which is both cool and a bit lonely at the same time

[@heronimousbrapson863]

When I was in high school there were two Carol Smiths. To distinguish between the two, they had to include their middle initials, which were different.

[@vcthedank]

I looked up my surname (which is cipriano) and realization in my county there are only two and in my state which is flordia only about 320 but me and my sister both have the same last name coincidence I THINK NOT

[@iammrbeat]

Hold up. YOU AND YOUR SISTER BOTH HAVE THE SAME LAST NAME?!?

[@vcthedank]

Mr. Beat no I say it's surprising because we are the only people in our county that has the same last name lol (my dad would count but his legal residents is in Maine)

[@rj1056]

@@vcthedank Are you from Mozambique 🇲🇿 ?

[@vcthedank]

Informax from Maine friend

[@Broomful]

that's interesting

[@HorrorMetalDnD]

The actor who played Ares on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys was also named Kevin Smith.

[@joshwhite5730]

Something funny is that this guy is a history teacher and has one of the rarest surnames while my history teacher is named mr smith the most common surnames

[@robcep6332]

Mr. Beat, love your videos

[@cpt.flippybirds9015]

My sergeant had a lisp and would say, " DITHSMITHED!"🐦

[@MDaggatt]

My surname is very uncommon, with only 47 people, exclusively in the US and England, who show up with that name. Daggett, however, is much more common, as it was the original version of our family name. My ancestor, however, thought it would be hilarious to change our family name so it would look better in a poem.

[@XxPlayMakerxX131]

This should be longer

[@ItsMeJackyD]

That's what she said (;

[@KApriliandri]

In my basic training class we had 6 Smiths. The drill sergeants called them Smith 1, Smith 2, Smith 3, etc…

[@murlough23]

I laughed so hard when you were going through all the Kevin Smiths, because I thought, "There's no way he's gonna list the singer from dc Talk", and then you did exactly that. (He changed his professional name to Kevin Max for that exact reason.) Martin is an annoyingly common name. I'm related to neither Steve nor Chris. I've run into a few other David Martins in my lifetime, and in one case we were both working for the same government entity and I kept getting work-related Emails intended for the other guy. Sometimes I'd love to have an uncommon name that people struggle to pronounce.

[@Broomful]

Same here I'd like to have a Uncommon surname that way it would be extremely hard to confuse me with someone else

[@NBK1122]

I do have an uncommon name that is often mispronounced. (I do it myself.) My last name is Kristjánsson. In Iceland, where my ex-husband is from, it's pronounced "Krist-yowns-son." (The accented "a" sounds like 'ow' which rhymes with now.) I say "Christianson" because I'm not Icelandic. Most people look at it and think it's "Krist-jansson," sometimes as two names. I've been called Jansson more than once.

[@only1king183]

Great videos !! Keep the young people informed!!

[@TheOlian04]

There are 19 ppl in the world with my last name

[@kurt7536]

*_-TheOlian04-_* What is it?

[@TheOlian04]

Seeing as there are only 19 of us, pinpointing me out of the them wouldn't be that hard. So to protect my privacy I'm going to keep that a secret ;)

[@BellFamily594]

*_-Hi-_*

[@whatdoinamethischannel9749]

Jekir is one of the the rarest last names in the world and it was the surname of my grandfather but it was actually an error Jekir is just Kadir misheard and so the error Jekir was placed on official documents which is why it says Jekir is from Jamaica and is most prevelent in Jamaica Only 1 in 235,082,126 people have this last name

[@vallraffs]

I believe in places like Turkey the government made it legally required of people to have last names, for reasons of westernization. Does that also count as imperialism, when it wasn't done by a foreign conquering power?

[@iammrbeat]

Agreed with Benj SMITH, the one with the most common US surname. ;)

[@LeonidasSthlm]

Absolutely not. It was however authoritarian of the turkish state to force it upon it's population.

[@alessioleporati1478]

Valter Östberg In muslim countries it use to be common to have a first name and then your last name was your fathers first name and son mean bin and daughter is bint so you would have names like usama bin laden Osama son of laden or Muhammad bin Salmon Muhammad son of Salmon but this was too inconvenient because you often would have to put your grandfather’s name and great grandfather and it could go on forever so most Muslim countries except Saudi Arabia adopted the Surname system because it was easier for passports and documents sometime in the early half of the 20th century.

[@vallraffs]

Alessio Leporati That's a pretty good system, if you ask me. We had the same type of patronymics here in the Nordic countries, though only Iceland does it anymore.

[@ADogNamedStay]

Alessio Leporati like the Romans kinda?

[@HumanBeing1974]

My grandpa told me his experience during boot camp for WW2 ...when they called for Layton everyone came out.😅 Rest In Peace Grandpa 😢

[@kallmannkallmann]

419,667th most common, Thysell. Anyone Beat that?

[@iammrbeat]

I see what you did there :)

[@KomonHouseholdObjex]

Neeff. 564,000

[@snowdogethan]

Are you from the Midwest?

[@Marcus-bt7re]

Nohejl. 431,257th

[@ShunTzu13]

502,369 Dietlein

[@liamforan4105]

My last name is Irish, and it means, “son of the devotee of saints”, which means someone who is interested in the saints, so maybe a holy figure, it also means “cold”, it originated from the west coastal line of Ireland.

[@rin_etoware_2989]

Miriam Defensor Santiago! Ayo! The best Filipino in the world, and the best Philippine president we never got.

[@iammrbeat]

Wow! That's cool you're a fan.

[@rin_etoware_2989]

Mr. Beat Provincial connections (she and my grandfather were from the same province, and probably the same school) and the fact that she's a total badass. There was a heckling foreign suspect during a press conference of hers, so she said, "Sir, I remind you that as the Commissioner of Immigration and Deportation, I represent the majesty of the Republic of the Philippines. You have the obligation to show respect and courtesy to me. Now shut up, or I'll knock your teeth off!"

[@logansmith2771]

Viva la revolucion, Gl comrades 71/81 of the providences are liberated from the oppressive Filipino Government! MLM

[@rin_etoware_2989]

Alden, I have some bones to pick. First, if you wish to remonstrate concerning someone's opinions over the cyberspace, perhaps you should actually approach your interlocutor with proper points of contention instead of using cuss words. Second, why should I be compunctious of my convictions just because a KZbin comment told me to? Third, it is discriminatory to the indigenous peoples who live in the mountains of our country to imply that they know little to none. If you truly are in the educated high ground, you should have already known that. Fourth, speaking of your claim that I am "uneducated", I can certainly say, as a proofreader, that I see twenty-two grammatical errors in your comment. Fifth, no. I will not delete my comment because, as was said earlier, you have mentioned no valid reason as to why my point of view is incorrect, and even if that is the case, I reside in the Republic of the Philippines, and Article III Section 4 of the Philippine Constitution defends my right to exercise free speech, and as I have not disrespected any national symbol of the Nation, or cast dishonour or contempt upon your person, or used my speech to extol a crime of any sort, this section still applies to me. In summary: Ikaw yung nakakahiya, kaya ikaw mag-delete ng comment.

[@rin_etoware_2989]

So maybe let the Westerners judge for themselves instead of pontificating for them to push for your slanted view of the world? And maybe you should brush up on proper word use while you're at it.

[@KyleNguyen403]

As someone with the last name Nguyen, i really appreciated the Vietnam segment of this video

[@cpt.flippybirds9015]

I wonder what the Shoemakers did for a living? Was it watching meteors🤔

[@joanhuffman2166]

In his book 'Slaves in the Family' the author Edward Ball observed that even though his ancestors owned hundreds of slaves only a very few took the last name Ball. He said the Freedmen from one plantation chose a two page list of family names when they registered with the federal government. He told the story of a few who did take the name Ball, let's just say that they had the right to that name. While I know that schools taught and perhaps still teach that Freedmen took their master's name, in reality that did not happen as often as we were led to believe.

[@jackrowe5571]

My Grandmother was born a Smith. Her father used to say that Adam's last name was Smith, so everyone was a Smith. Whenever someone did something bad, they would move out of town and change their names.

[@robertoadg4267]

Clever thing , my great grandpa did that and destroyed the family’s identity. Now we are part of 5 Million instead of 13K in the world , he didn’t even give us his 6’4” height.

[@ganaraminukshuk0]

For the record, the closest thing to "Poop" (that I was able to find) was "Poope", which (at the time of me posting) is ranked 3743211th with ~7 people bearing the name.

[@Toopa88]

wtf, my first thought was MrBeast and then your voice is similar too

[@SuperGion915]

In Mexico we have 2 last names, the first from your father and the second from your mother

[@M30W3R]

What happens if both parents share the same surname?

[@roa4969]

Didn't the surname "Hitler" decline drastically

[@rukminikrishna1938]

Matt Beat (November 6, 1981-present) is an American KZbinr known as Mr.Beat (not MrBeast or Mr.Bean

[@oswaldomelchor3251]

Love you channel I am Mexican

[@iammrbeat]

Awesome. Thanks for watching :D

[@nielcarpnava]

About that Spanish surnames in the Philippines, it was Governor-General Narciso Claveria - the head of Spanish East Indies (Philippines) at that time, who introduced Spanish surnames for the Filipinos because they had struggled to record information such as tax-paying, census and other matters of the government.

[@deviction6530]

I thought it was pronounced “Ne-Goo-Yen” lol

[@milanblagojevic4560]

In Serbia most of the surnames have same construction , you take a name and put ić at the end. Like Jovanović , Blagojević, Petrović. And it means something like child of that person. So you know that the name of the man who started your family is in your surname. But in eastern Serbia it is sometimes common to for surnames to change after thrid generation, for example after your great grandfather so it ads another laier of complexity to tracking surnames

[@immanuelmiles3419]

Mr. Beat. You should do a video on the name Bacigalupo. It's Italian for 🐺 and 😘. I'm pretty sure it's just as rare. The James Smith part was extremely funny by the way. Thank you for videos for they have encouraged more and new learning. I have been to jabrils page, and the gentleman who was suggested on your video, WHY JEWS ARE HATED. Thanks again. Whether you do or don't.

[@ferminbf2224]

it´s all a matter of language. in spanish the most common family name is Garcia, Rodriguez.... and some others finished in "ez".

[@dylanlcreser]

My last name is so uncommon that it didn't even register on the site, because, as far as I know, I'm the only person in the world with my last name.

[@savioblanc]

Creser is the 1,636,442nd most common surname in the world whilst Lewis is much more common - 547th most common surname in the world

[@yeeted9466]

Dylan Lewis-Creser (・o・)

[@avacurtis2729]

My last name Curtis is quite common. However the website linked lead me to find out my grandmothers maden name (Galgerud) is only shared by 65 people globally!

I cringe so hard when you pronounce the surname Nguyễn

[@XellosMetallium]

Mr. Beat may not pronouce the ending correctly but at least he doesn’t say “Nugent”. That is incorrect. Nguy-- en ___ it’s like how chinese speaks, their tone went up and down.

@@XellosMetallium no it not. First of all He miss the Ng consonant which is likes the continuting of singing. Secount the ~ tone is not the up and down tone, it called the hight broken tone which is you have to higher your pitch and broke it to be able to make the sound. Third is that there is no such thing is called the ending sound and the silent in Vietnamese likes it does in English. Vietnamese have nothing to do or relate to English, the only thing that the two language share in common is both are romanized, but they are both romanized by two difference person from two difference time, so don't expect anything from Vietnamese that is similar to English. Also Vietnamese have high number of phonemes which is 84 while English is 44, the way that the sound are build up is difference from each other.

@@XellosMetallium uyê is one vowle.

[@XellosMetallium]

He’s a forgeiner dont expect a 100% the way he said in the video was more than good. Many American-Vietnamese couldnt even pronouce their last name (Nguyen). Besides both the North and South pronounce it differently which are you?

@@XellosMetallium you don't need to tell me that South and North pronounce it differently because everyone in Vietnamese fucking know it. Only the fucking oversea and Vietnamese American don't know it. And only the North pronunciation is the correct one, the South say it into Nguỷng rather than Nguyễn. Even Vietnamese surname likes Võ from the North change to vũ in the South, Hoàng in the North change into Huỳnh. But only North is correct to how it original sound by compare to the old written and the Chinese version from Madaran and Catonese. Didn't you know that all Vietnamese names are from Chinese names even Nguyễn, so you just need to look to the middle Chinese pronunciation of it and how it been record in paper to know which sound is correct?

[@kleseus]

I tried to do a family history chart and it just keeps getting messier by generation, because the last name gets changed ever so sligtly.

[@uvbe]

1,687,490th most common surname in the world. Approximately 52 people bear this surname Wow

[@GANONdork123]

There are 142 people in the US with my last name. Of them, only two also share the first name of Michael, those would be me and my father. my last name does appear to be fairly common in the Philippines however.

[@oddbloochicken]

I always found it super interesting that when i check forebears for my last name (O'Garra, so with two R's not one R) that only approximately 86 people WORLDWIDE share my last name. Like holy moly how is there less than 100 people who share my last name. Theres 26 in New Zealand where i live and I'm pretty sure i could name most of them being members of my family

[@bryedtan]

I live in Metropolitan Manila in the Philippines my last name is Tan. There are times I encounter a lot of people with the same surname of Tan especially here in the Philippines in Southeast Asia.

[@NicklasZandeVGCP2001]

My family has a trend of having their first child come out male. My Uncle Michael and Aunt Ashley just had their first son Noah. So you will see a lot more Zandes in the near future.

[@Broomful]

Great to know and hear

[@ClassyWhale]

1:40 hey it's the guy from DC talk!

[@briannawaldorf8485]

I looked my surname up (Waldorf, no not that one) and it‘s german, and mean village forest or forest village. I believe it’s spelled differently than it was when my family came over because they were trying to seem more American. Lol

[@theofficialdavidbristeryou5702]

the james smith portion of the video made me laugh very hard

[@danielefabbro822]

Cool. I'm technically a Smith too. To be precise a "Blacksmith". That's my surname translated in English.

[@deanjulian6189]

I am a Native Canadian from British Colombia and i had a traditional name when i was born given by my people but when you hit adulthood they are meant to give another name but my Government name is Edward, Dean, Julian, Edgar, Lucas.

[@sigmaballsnetwork]

According to one of the websites Mr. Beat listed, I am the only Khalid Guled in the United States!

[@suptestman]

Did a search on that site and found out my last name is only held by 17 different people, who are all part of my family, and if never have a child my surname will cease to exist.

[@n.agustin113]

I've found that Koren it's a Czech surname... And Cybuchowska, (which means smoking) is one of the least common surnames in Poland. Also, I tracked over & over the origin of surname Moszak, which sounds like polish and I couldn't find anything

[@davidhurowitz856]

Your vlogs are educational and fun. Thanks

[@TheGeoScholar]

Interesting you mention the last name "Smith". In Poland, "Kowalski" is the 2nd most common last name. It means "blacksmith".

[@jaredvale]

Kowalski Analysis

[@KingJT80]

Me as a black American from descendants of slaves has the last name, Thompson or Thomson (son of thom or tom). my moms side was a lot less common. Wright maybe their slave owners were European woodworkers or a general workers of some sort in the beginning?

[@mitchross4002]

Deadass got an email from a Smith while watching this and my dad’s name is Kevin

[@tom_something]

Smiths were required for other occupational industries. For example, the surname "Cooper" refers someone who makes barrels and similar vessels. Barrels need metal, which must be smithed. A Fleischman (butcher) needs knives and saws, from metal which must be smithed. A Schumacher often needs metal pieces and a sewing needle to mach their schus. And there's only so much smithing one person can do in a day, and metal is heavy. This was before aluminum, titanium, and magnesium were readily available. Plus, a lot of these metal parts had to be made to spec, on demand. So it's no wonder smiths were both numerous and well distributed. I'm kind of surprised there aren't more Baumhauers out there. They would have come from lumberjacks. But I guess the smiths were in every town whereas the lumberjacks were concentrated in the places where the trees were.

[@redead2450]

I've tried looking up my last name "Motayne" and apparently there's no real info on it so I guess it's rare

[@tiadelimuerta5977]

Only 67 people have my last name, LaPread, and they are all related to me by blood, all in the U.S.

[@zoeysno]

Cool video man! Only 28 other people have the same last name of "Snofsky", that's really interesting. :)

[@viscountrainbows2857]

My last name has almost 500 hits in Haiti, and the rest are to me, misspellings distributed through the U.S. and Canada

[@javige03]

If I don't have kids, my last name (Genero) will die out. My great grandfather changed his last name from his original. He only had one son, my grandfather. Then my grandfather only had one son as well, my father. Then my dad only had one son, me. Assumming my sisters follows tradition, there last names will change. So, if I don't have sons, my last name will die

[@iammrbeat]

Woah

[@ikkeisaac7888]

*Plot twist: Mr Beat real last name is Smiths*

[@NBK1122]

On my first Navy ship, there were 20 Smiths and 20 Johnsons. I was one of ten Browns.

[@maryslack6169]

Saltwell is one of my family's name and it's dying out,it's from Great Britain and I've asked people from there and they've never heard of it. But Braaksma is like Smith or Johnson in the Netherlands. Another family last name

[@eframmartinez]

Actually, there's at least two other source of surnames. Patronymics and demonyms. Where i live (argentina) a lot of people are called by the place their ancestor used to live (eg. Toledo in spain or Lucca in italy) and many others have last names that used to be linked to their's father's name (eg. Jovanovich => Jovan- ich, son of Jovan-aka a slavic John- and Petroff => Petr-ov, son o Petr-slavic for Peter-) Argentina has a particularly significant aport of european ancestry(mainly from Spain and Italy), so there are a lot of examples like that

[@Spoonable]

I have 2 variations of my name. Robert which is the 3rd most common first name in the us and Bobby which is the 165th most common first name. My surname Morley is the 3072nd most common. If I stick with Robert, there are 207 people in the us with my name.

[@melvayaredaguilar]

some groups of mothers or fathers do not always give birth at a hospital

[@HorrorMetalDnD]

Any drummers with the last name Beat?

[@nonabliss]

Um....why is Mr. Beat standing in front of a dilapidated super market?

[@nonabliss]

Nevermind....the answer is revealed @ 07:28 I see what you did there Mr. Beat.

[@RandoRod]

Interesting. My name Rando Mithlo is an anagram of my real name Rod Hamilton. Hamilton is a fairly common name at #102, I use the anagram because there are already a few well known Rod Hamilton's out there. Not assuming I'll ever be famous, but to avoid confusion.

[@Broomful]

interesting I don't know much famous or well known people with the same first and last name as me "Joshua Mondesir"

[@alessioleporati1478]

My last name is very common in one part of the Mediterranean but not anywhere else that is because people from where my family is from rarely leave the Island due to extreme nationalism and attachment to their ancestral homeland. My last name grows but is ultimately confined to a remote geographic location

[@thisguyhere6641]

Can you imagine the law firms with all these surnames?! Let's say you go to a law firm where there are black lawyers or white lawyers or even a mix of black and white lawyers, you'd go to the Law Offices of Smith, Jones, Brown, and Williams! Or the Law Offices of Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, and Washington! Or even the Law Offices of Jenkins, Martin, Miller, and Thomas! It's obvious they'd be popping up everywhere! Whether it's in small towns like Harlan, Kentucky, or in big cities like Atlanta, Georgia! Or imagine the Law Offices of Garcia, Hernandez, Lopez, and Martinez in places like El Paso, Texas! Or imagine the Law Offices of Diamond, Goldman, Murray, and Silverberg in places like New York City! Or even imagine the Law Offices of Chung, Lee, Nguyen, and Yang in places like San Francisco, California! Or just imagine those law offices in a place called Springfield! Wherever that is!