this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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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.

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[–] daannii@lemmy.world 1 points 34 minutes ago

Sanchez or Garcia for Spanish probably

Sazuki is common in Japan.

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago

No way it's Popa in Romania. Popescu is an insanely common name, by far the most common I've heard.

[–] GoodNews@europe.pub 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Janssens and Peeters in Belgium (Flemish region)

[–] lucg@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

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

[–] xcutie@linux.community 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] lucg@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Pronounced "win" with a slight N sound before, for anyone else wondering

[–] arthur@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago

Silva - Brasil

[–] helix@feddit.org 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Schmitt (Germany)

Or Müller (=Miller)

[–] lucg@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

German also has Mustermann ("Muster" meaning template)

We don't have that in the Netherlands or in English afaik and would use something like Smith, that is Janssen in our case. Of course you could also see something like "Last_name" or "Example" in the place of a last name field, but it doesn't look like a name the way that yours does

[–] Kwdg@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Isn't it usually Schmidt? Or is there a regional difference?

[–] gsx@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 11 hours ago

It's a regional/religious difference. In the southern more Catholic regions it's mostly Schmitt and in the northern more Protestant regions it's mostly Schmidt.

[–] Sheldan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I think just similar names.

In Austria Maier is very common, but also Meier, or Mayer.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Tremblay - Québec, Canada

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 1 points 12 hours ago

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.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't forget hyphenated last names. The number of "long last name - another long last name" Quebec names I've seen is astounding.

[–] funksoulkitchen@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago

"sigh No, I'm 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?

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 8 points 1 day ago

Kim for Korea

[–] RedSturgeon@hexbear.net 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] GiorgioPerlasca@lemmy.ml 1 points 15 hours ago

Many people whose last name was Kovalenko became Kovalyov during Russification in Soviet Union.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

'Kuznets' means smith too. The difference is that kuznets is borrowed from Church Slavonic, while koval is authentically East Slavic.

[–] atheqtpie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ferrari - Italian

Andersson - Swedish

[–] Tanoh@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Andersson - Swedish

I would say it is a tie between Andersson and Svensson.

[–] Infrapink@thebrainbin.org 5 points 1 day ago

Smith. Also Murphy.

иванов/иванова (ivanov/a) is common, кузнецов/а (kuznetsov/a) is “smith”

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm from neither China nor India, but I'd wager Wang and Singh respectively. I'd also wager Garcia for Spain, Ivanov for Russia, and Müller for Germany.

If say it's Campbell or maybe Wilson in my country (Northern Ireland).

[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 9 points 1 day ago

extremely UK post

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago

Jensen - Denmark

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago

Wales has to be Jones.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sikh's have a mandate to use certain last names but im not sure how much its followed.

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Singh and Kaur for males and females, respectively, if I understand right.

Иванов или Кузнецов - русский

Smit (Smith) of De Jong (Nederlands)

García (español) o Herrero