Common names

This 2016 article says the latest count for Britain and Ireland was 500,000 Smiths - only 100,000 more than 1881.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38003201

If you have access to Oxford English Dictionary databases via your county library card you may want to have a look at the entry for Smith in the OE Dictionary of Family Names of Britain and Ireland referred to in that article:

I think of Smith as a quintessentially British and Irish name but of course it has corresponding versions in other countries: Extract from the book:

The English surname has absorbed, by assimilation and translation, cognates and equivalents from many other languages, including Dutch Smit and German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) Schmidt.

Early bearers:

Franz Smith, born in Germany, in Census 1851 (Marylebone, Middx); Abraham Smith, 1857 in Great and Hambro Synagogue Births (London); Peter Smith, born in The Netherlands, in Census 1881 (Swansea, Glamorgan); George Smith, born in Sweden, in Census 1881 (Wavertree, Lancs); Frederick Smith, born in Dresden, Germany, in Census 1901 (Hammersmith, Middx); Samson Smith, born in Russia, in Census 1881 (Middlesbrough, NR Yorks); Harris Smith, born in Poland, in Census 1881 (Saint George in the East, Middx); Jacob Smith, born in Poland, in Census 1881 (Bromley, Kent); Hyman Smith, tailor’s machinist, born in Poland, in Census 1891 (Norwich, Norfolk); Wodak Smith, hairdresser, born in Poland, in Census 1911 (Islington, Middx).

I think it’s nice when people are just called simple names like Smith. Better than when they change them to Smyth, or something Smyth with a hyphen.
Locally so many couples don’t bother getting married so virtually all of one class in our nearby school have double barrelled surnames. A bit like Eton I suppose.

Johnson is pretty bad for ancestry research, too. Especially William Johnson - we have a couple of those on my husband’s side. Brown is another hard one, especially Mary Brown from London. Eeek. I know a lady called Di Young. Now I would have changed that one.

There was a girl Smith in my class at school and DH played rugby with s Smith. Only two I've ever known.
I always had to spell my maiden name, unfortunately I also have to spell my married name too.
Smith would have been so much easier.

I know a family of three sisters, who all married men called Smith.
There are lots around here.

Alegrias1

*Aldom*'s post jogged my memory. My dad's first name and surname are both quite common, in Scotland at least.

At school in the forties there were six boys in his class with the exact same name!

It was the late 40's early 50's when I was in primary school too.

Oddly enough I was thinking about this just last week. I had a customer called mr Smith and it occurred to me, that I hadn’t heard the name in ages, when I was growing up it was a very common name, several families on our estate, and more at school.
Maybe they are all hyphenated now to Something-Smith.