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.
Sharma – India
The all-powerful “Sharma-ji ka beta” (“Mr. Sharma’s son”) is Indian parents’ go-to standard for their children
Literally it would be Kowalski, which is stereotypical common surname. Another common one is Nowak (meaning newguy vaguely).
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
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.
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.
No way it’s Popa in Romania. Popescu is an insanely common name, by far the most common I’ve heard.
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
Nguyễn - Vietnam
Pronounced “win” with a slight N sound before, for anyone else wondering
Silva - Brasil
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?
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.
Kim for Korea
Ferrari - Italian
Andersson - Swedish
Andersson - Swedish
I would say it is a tie between Andersson and Svensson.
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).
