Baby names often go in and out of fashion, but what about surnames?
The most common surnames in Scotland going back over 50 years reveal some interesting trends about how the country has changed over the past five decades.
Data, from the National Records of Scotland, lists the surnames that occur most often in Scotland’s registers of births, marriages and deaths. It reveals the top 20 surnames for every fifth year from 1975 to 2020.
According to the National Records for Scotland, the top three remained the exact same in each of those years. These are Smith, Brown, and Wilson, which had 2,719, 1,970, and 1,886 occurrences in 2020 respectively.
The following names all also appeared on every list dating back to 1975: Robertson, Campbell, Stewart, Thomson, Anderson, Scott, MacDonald, Reid, Murray, Clark, Taylor, Ross, Young.
The National Records for Scotland stated: "The names which have risen most since 1975 and 2000 reflect Scotland’s growing diversity. Ali was the fastest rising name from 1975-2020 and from 2000-2020, going from 39 occurrences in 1975 to 95 in 2000 to 145 in 2020.
"Ali was the joint 128th most common name in birth, marriage and death registers in 2020, rising from joint 900th in 1975. Other names that rose by fifty or more occurrences between 1975 and 2020 were Ahmed, Khan, Hussain and Singh."
Top 20 surnames in Scotland
Surnames are from the registers of births, marriages and deaths for every fifth year from 1975 to 2020.
- Smith
- Brown
- Wilson
- Stewart
- Thomson
- Robertson
- Campbell
- Anderson
- Murray
- Scott
- Taylor
- Macdonald
- Reid
- Clark
- Mitchell
- Walker
- Young
- Ross
- Watson
- Morrison
Each year’s list was prepared by counting the surname of each child in that year’s register of births, the surnames of both parties (for example the bride and the groom) in the register of marriages, and the surname of the deceased in the register of deaths. Different spellings were counted separately.
As stated by the National Records for Scotland, the surnames from the birth, marriage and death registers may not be representative of the surnames of the population of Scotland as a whole, as:
- They include the surnames of non-residents who were born/married/died here
- They exclude the surnames of residents who were born/married/died elsewhere
- Some age-groups have very low birth, marriage and death rates, whereas others account for most births, marriages and deaths
More information can be found on the National Records for Scotland website.
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