Distinctly British-American surnames

**Creoda** · 12-17-2020, 05:51 AM

Garrison, don't remember hearing this name in Britain/Australia before

Garrison prevalence/ranking
United States 68,192 / 607
Canada 1,086 / 4,363
Ghana 485 / 5,980
England 444 / 12,566
Jamaica 356 / 931
Russia 102 / 98,464
Japan 81 / 24,941
Philippines 38 / 134,326
Australia 36 / 48,970

**Davy Jones's Locker** · 01-12-2021, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by Creoda

Taft - never heard this name in the UK

There's a lad called George Taft who England selected for a FIFA youth world cup a decade ago. Does seem more common in the US though.

**SineNomine** · 04-10-2021, 06:56 AM

One interesting feature is that, somehow, Davies in Wales/UK became Davis in America. I have never encountered an American with the Davies spelling. I don't know if any Britons use Davis. Americans tend to use more Anglicized variants of other Welsh names (Reese or Rice for Rhys).
I tend to see other spelling variants such as Greene and Browne as more British, Green and Brown as American.

Some surnames tend to be very common for African Americans, and a few (esp. Washington, Jefferson!) are almost always African American in the U.S. Robinson and Jackson are also very common black surnames. I understand that there are a few British Washingtons and Jeffersons, but in the US, their rankings are almost entirely due to African Americans.

**Creoda** · 04-10-2021, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by SineNomine

One interesting feature is that, somehow, Davies in Wales/UK became Davis in America. I have never encountered an American with the Davies spelling. I don't know if any Britons use Davis. Americans tend to use more Anglicized variants of other Welsh names (Reese or Rice for Rhys).
I tend to see other spelling variants such as Greene and Browne as more British, Green and Brown as American.

Some surnames tend to be very common for African Americans, and a few (esp. Washington, Jefferson!) are almost always African American in the U.S. Robinson and Jackson are also very common black surnames. I understand that there are a few British Washingtons and Jeffersons, but in the US, their rankings are almost entirely due to African Americans.

Davis is also common in Britain (and Australia). Davis is English, Davies Welsh.

**Tyrone Slothrop** · 04-10-2021, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by Creoda

Examples of English names I wouldn't expect to be American

You'd be surprised; many of these are, while not necessarily as common as Smith and Wilson and Brown etc, not uncommon among Americans; a couple on the list are names that appear in my own family tree (which is mostly American colonial back to the 1600s). Edited list to reflect names I can say are definitely also American as I have personally known or met Americans who have them, with US-specific spelling differences noted (the most characteristic spelling change is A>E):

Spoiler!

**Östsvensk** · 04-10-2021, 08:43 PM

Myers and Sanders were anglicized from German and are also more uncommon names in the UK. In the US, they're found on the top 100.

**Smitty** · 04-10-2021, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by Creoda

Examples of English names I wouldn't expect to be American, most are quite Northern.

Burnett would be an example of a very American, Southron name I'd say.

Schofield (boyhood friend of my dad), Dobson (Christian psychologist James Dobson), Atkins (country singer Rodney Atkins), Burgess (worked with a guy by this name), Underwood (Carrie) are found in America. It looks like Gaskill is our variant of Gaskell - 7500 US to 500 UK. I have that name in my family tree. There are 12,000 instances of Burnett in Britain. Fascinating subject.

**Smitty** · 04-10-2021, 09:09 PM

Some other family names of mine that seem to be more American than British - Prickett, Payton/Peyton, Force (this may have been French originally), Henthorn(e), Dunivan (undoubtedly just a spelling variation, though).

**Creoda** · 04-10-2021, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by Smitty

Some other family names of mine that seem to be more American than British - Prickett, Payton/Peyton, Force (this may have been French originally), Henthorn(e), Dunivan (undoubtedly just a spelling variation, though).

Yep, not heard those before, although there was one English/Irish footballer called Gerry Peyton I remember.

**Creoda** · 04-10-2021, 11:32 PM

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

You'd be surprised; many of these are, while not necessarily as common as Smith and Wilson and Brown etc, not uncommon among Americans; a couple on the list are names that appear in my own family tree (which is mostly American colonial back to the 1600s). Edited list to reflect names I can say are definitely also American as I have personally known or met Americans who have them, with US-specific spelling differences noted (the most characteristic spelling change is A>E):

Spoiler!

It's cool that you have a Myatt from North Staffordshire you can trace, I also have Myatt in my ancestry from the 19th century (my maternal side is from North Staffordshire). Obviously it's a local name.

A couple of other distinct local names in my family are Blundred and Warrilow, which I'd be surprised to hear in another county, let alone America (although one of them did go to Idaho funnily enough).