John Smiths in the UK and US are lumbered with having the most common name – if not statistically, then at least anecdotally.
But what about the rest of the globe? Is there a John Smith equivilant in Egypt? Or Russia?
A Reddit thread has been collecting the most common names from other countries, and it’s rather enlightening.
Korea
Not sure about first names but around 20% of Korea's population has the surname "Kim".
-not_athletic
Poland
Jan Kowalski. Which is literally John Smith in my language, actually.
-Wojciehehe
In polish it's also Jan Nowak, which literally means "John Newman"
-iwantotsaysmth
Scotland
In Scotland its probably Cameron McDonald.
I know about 5.
-Solafuge
Egypt
Egyptian here but this is probably applicable for most Arab speaking/Muslim majority countries. Muhammed and Ahmed are so common it's insane.
Watching a typical soccer game: 'Muhammed passes the ball to Muhammed and back to Muhammed and he passes it wide to Hamada and back to Ahmed and GOAAAAAAL'
-yaraelshab
Hong Kong
Hong Kong here.
The placeholder name that's most commonly used here is Chan Tai Man (陳大文).
Chan is the surname, and Tai Man is the given name, as the surname goes first in Chinese names.
-CarbonSpectre
Russia
Kuznetsov comes from Kuznets, which means Blacksmith. It's an extremely common name in Russia. Meanwhile, everyone in the world knows Ivan is easily one of the most common given names in Russia. Ivan comes Ioannes, which also gives us the name John.
So, in essence, the John Smith of Russia is John Smith, but in Russian.
-mf9769
Denmark
The most common first name in Denmark is Jens.
The most common surname is Jensen.
The most common full name is Jens Jensen.
We're not at very creative bunch.
-Baerensten
Vietnam
40% of Vietnamese people have Nguyen as a surname.
-elee0228
Quebec
Tremblay is the most common surname in Quebec, so probably Jean Tremblay (or Marie Tremblay).
-sometimesidrawfish
