Explore the Family Name Smith

The meaning of Smith

1. English and Scottish: occupational name denoting a worker in metal, especially iron, such as a blacksmith or farrier, from Middle English smith ‘smith’ (Old English smith, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Early examples are also found in the Latin form Faber. Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents in other languages were the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is also the most frequent of all surnames in the US. It is very common among African Americans and Native Americans (see also 5 below). This surname (in any of the two possible English senses; see also below) is also found in Haiti. See also Smither. 2. English: from Middle English smithe ‘smithy, forge’ (Old English smiththe). The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived in or by a blacksmith’s shop, occupational, for someone who worked in one, or habitational, from a place so named, such as Smitha in King’s Nympton (Devon). Compare Smithey. 3. Irish and Scottish: sometimes adopted for Gaelic Mac Gobhann, Irish Mac Gabhann ‘son of the smith’. See McGowan. 4. Americanized form (translation into English, or assimilation) of various European surnames meaning ‘smith’ or ‘blacksmith’, for example German and Jewish Schmidt, Dutch, Flemish, and North German Smit, Ukrainian, Rusyn, or other Slavic Koval, Slovak Kováč, Slovenian, Serbian, and Croatian Kovač (see Kovac), and Jewish Kuznetz (see Kuznetsov). 5. Native American: from English smith, adopted as an occupational name for a smith, often as a translation into English of a personal name based on an equivalent occupational name from any of the Native American languages, such as Navajo atsidí ‎‘smith’ (see Atcitty). In most cases, however, the surname Smith was probably chosen because it is the most common (English) surname in North America (see 1 above). It is also the most common surname among Native Americans. Compare Blacksmith.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

What do people with the surname Smith have in common?

Spoiler alert: it's complicated. People with the same last name are usually no more genetically similar than a randomly sampled group of people from the same population. That said, people with the same surname are more likely to have similar ancestries than randomly sampled individuals. The reason is the tendency of people with similar cultural or geographical backgrounds to preferentially mate with one another. That's why people who share a surname may be more likely to share traits and tendencies in common than people within the general population. Check out the percentages below to see the prevalences of tastes, habits, and traits of people with your surname compared with prevalences among 23andMe users.