I don’t mean a direct translation, but rather a common and/or “stereotypical” last name that is generally used as the equivalent of “Smith” in English.
Literally it would be Kowalski, which is stereotypical common surname. Another common one is Nowak (meaning newguy vaguely).
Sharma – India
The all-powerful “Sharma-ji ka beta” (“Mr. Sharma’s son”) is Indian parents’ go-to standard for their children
In Denmark it would be Nielsen and Jensen and first name would be Anne or Peter.
Peter Petersen, Jens Jensen and Niels Nielsen are not uncommon combinations.
Jens Jensen is actually the most common name in Denmark for men and for women it is Kirsten Jensen.
Jens got around it seems
Korean: 홍길동 for “John Smith”, usually seen on form samples
In Italy, it is Rossi. Mario Rossi is the most common first name/last name combination.
In Russia, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov. I don’t know why they love so much Johannes from the Bible.
Sanchez or Garcia for Spanish probably
Sazuki is common in Japan.
In Mexico, who adds a bunch of Spanish speakers, it would be Hernandez before those two. Lopez would also be up there.
Oh yeah Hernandez. Can’t believe I forgot that one.
Nguyễn - Vietnam
Pronounced “win” with a slight N sound before, for anyone else wondering
Silva - Brasil
In Portugal too
Janssens and Peeters in Belgium (Flemish region)
Janssen or Jansen (without that final s) is also the default last name in the Netherlands
In the north you find a lot of de Vries (the… frosty? There’s an origin story involving Napoleon that I don’t know whether it’s correct)
Regarding Peeters, a crush of mine was called Peters, in Dutch Limburg. Besides that I don’t know the name so I’d guess it’s uncommon here
No way it’s Popa in Romania. Popescu is an insanely common name, by far the most common I’ve heard.
Tremblay - Québec, Canada
On a tangent, Paul Tremblay the author had one of the most disappointing collections of short stories after a few excellent novels. It was so bad I couldn’t finish it.
Don’t forget hyphenated last names. The number of “long last name - another long last name” Quebec names I’ve seen is astounding.
I think its a thing where the default is to combine names instead of the wife assuming the husband’s name. Not sure if its true but a French person told me so I’ve been running with that. Seems like a dangerous game where last names grow in size exponentially. Then one day they have to reset to one name, but everyone gets to pick their own name again.
“sigh No, I’m Terence Shrewsbury-McEllen-Smith-Harper-Thomas-Capote. You’re looking for Terence Shrewsbury-McEllen-Harper-Thomas-Capote-Smith.”
“No, we’re not related.”
chuckles in Tremblay-Laroche-Gagnon-Roy-Bouchard-Fortin
première fois, mon ami?
Kim for Korea
иванов/иванова (ivanov/a) is common, кузнецов/а (kuznetsov/a) is “smith”
Иван Иванович Иванов весь день ходит без штанов. Иванов Иван Иванович надевает штаны на ночь.
Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov goes without pants all day. Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich puts on his pants at night.
Kalējs, Kalvis, Kovalenko, Kuznetsov are some that I know around here.
Kuznetsov is a bit of an exception, it’s from the word кузня (kuznja) meaning forge. Koval would be Smith.
Many people whose last name was Kovalenko became Kovalyov during Russification in Soviet Union.
‘Kuznets’ means smith too. The difference is that kuznets is borrowed from Church Slavonic, while koval is authentically East Slavic.
Ferrari - Italian
Andersson - Swedish
Andersson - Swedish
I would say it is a tie between Andersson and Svensson.
