Are you a Smith? ;-)?

Question

Smith (or derivatives) is known to b one of the most common surnames in european languages (i have few examples from non-eur ones,but if someone can make a contribution you're welcome).There we have:

Smidt in german
Lefebvre in French
Ferrari - italian
Herrero - Spanish
Ferreira - Portuguese
Ferrer - Catalan
Kuznetsov - russian
Kowalski/ Kowalczyk - polish
Smit - Dutch
Kovač/ Kovačić/ Kovačević - serbian,slovak,hungarian
Kalejs -Latvian
Sepp - Estonian
Lohar - Punjabi
Haddad - Arabic
now think of this. In the days of yore, when first surnames were coined, the earth would b no more abundant in smiths than now. There'd b 1 smith (or,ok,a family - father and sons) in a village, and only in big villages,and a few in towns.How did it ever become so wide-spread?Tho its also true that smiths were much esteemed by their fellow-citizen,being of great importance to community.
Or was smith equivalent to modern milkmen and postmen, father of all illegitimate kids?
anyone has any insight into this

have a comment RE silversmiths/goldsmiths
most languages, apart from english and maybe german, don't follow that pattern, so smith would mostly be synonymous to "blacksmith", whereas "goldsmith" would be derived from a different root

as of jewish surnames,
if anyone could please list more examples like silbermann/goldmann etc.
that's pretty interesting, as goldsmith used to be a veryy common occupation among the jews (not sure whether it still is)

if someone knows the herbrew for goldsmith, would be top!

Irish Gaelic:
In Ireland and Gaelic Scotland, the word for smith, gobha, is prevalent in names like Goff, Gough, Gowan and MacGabhann (anglicised as McGowan), the latter based on Mac Gobha (literally 'son of the smith') (Wikipedia)

Ukranian: Kovalchuk/ Kovalenko

I'm not saying it's the MOST common surname, it couldn't be the MOST common in all languages listed, it's simply COMMON

Answer 1

Oddly your spellings are all perfect except the first two obvious, easy ones. It's Schmidt in German and Lefevre OR Lefebre in French. (Should be a grave accent over the second "e".)

I guess it's 'cos, like you said, smiths (ironsmiths, coppersmiths, blacksmiths etc.; metal-workers) were so important at the time surnames were first used. Most smiths would be referred to as such, unlike, say, farmers, who were two-a-penny.

Answer 2

My mother's side of our family was Smith ... so I'm half a smith!
None of them worked in blacksmiths, locksmiths, silversmiths, gunsmiths or arrowsmiths as far as I know ... and none of them were milkmen or postmen either ... or should that be milksmith and postsmith?

The original term "smith" was given to the blacksmith who often made more than horseshoes and tools ... but didn't go round the village siring sundry illegitimate children!

Answer 3

I was a Smith (maiden name), but by the time I left university, the most popular surname there was 'Patel' followed by 'Smith' (this was in London).

I'm sure there's someone famous called Kowalski, but I can't remember who!

Answer 4

My friend's surname is Isaac-Smith
By the way, i think the most common surname in russia is not as you say Kuznetsov. there are 3 most common ones- Ivanov, Petrov and Sidorov.

Answer 5

My maiden name was Smith, although originally my family name was Silbermann. They changed it so people wouldn't know they were jewish.

Answer 6

nope and do you know i dont know anybody with the surname smith or any of the others that you have put

Answer 7

haha no my name must be the rarest in the world, there's only about 100 left!

Answer 8

i was going to say 'no', but when I read the rest it's really interesting

Answer 9

I'm a Lock'smith', does that count???

Answer 10

I am not, but I have a cousin who is HERRERO