(Dutch) The worker in metals.

Smidt, Smits, and Smitt (Dutch/Flemish), Smith. (variant: Schmidt.)

Entire books have been written about the great English name of Smith. In origin this is an occupational name and comes from the Old English word ‘smith’ meaning ‘a metal-worker’. In this form it has remained unchanged for over 1,000 years, apart from the spelling variations of Smyth or Smythe. However, occasionally the name Smythe will in fact be a location name, deriving from Smithy. Thus it would mean ‘dweller at the smithy’.

The surname Smith has also frequently become double-barrelled, as for example in Robinson-Smith. The partner name in this case would have its own entirely separate deri­vation; it would usually be adapted from an indirect female line. Other variations on this name derive from specific trades-such as Brownsmith (meaning ‘copper or brass-smith’), or Greensmith (for ‘coppersmith’-the green referring either to the patina of copper, or to the colour of the flame when it is worked), Arrowsmith and Goldsmith. London’s borough of Hammersmith is named after a forge-a ‘hammer-smithy’.

Besides being easily the most popular name in England, Smith is also the most popular in Scotland, and in the United States (where the name will frequently have been anglicised from foreign sources, such as the German Schmidt). In Wales, however, Smith comes second to its greatest rival, Jones.

Besides the previously mentioned German form, there are also many other foreign versions of Smith. Some of the most widespread of these are Lefèvre (the French form), Kovac (in Slavonic languages), Haddad (in Hebrew), or Faber (from the Latin). Once again, these are only the simple forms and, like our English Smith, they also have their compound forms. The lesser-known examples are the French Orfèvre (goldsmith) and the German variation Messerschmidt (knifesmith).

Early examples of the name Smith were sometimes Latinised in the records to Faber. This name appears in the records from the 1066 Domesday Book onwards. However, the surname Smith has appeared in all records from the very earliest times and pre-dates the Domesday Book. The first reference comes in the Annals for Durham in AD 975, where one Ecceard Smith is mentioned.

One enterprising branch of the Smith family have blazoned the name on hundreds of British high streets. W.H. Smith (1792—1865) took over his father’s small news-stand in 1816 and later, helped by his son-also named William Henry (1825—91), expanded the business into the largest such enterprise in Great Britain, with over 300 outlets and 20,000 employees. The younger W.H. became an MP in 1868 and served as, amongst other things, First Lord of the Admiralty (1877). He was affectionately nicknamed ‘Old Morality’ by Punch and was the butt of the famous line, ‘Now I am the ruler of the Queen’s Nav-ee’ in Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1878 operetta HMS Pinafore.

Fiery-tempered British general, Sir Harry Smith (1787—1860), was Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner of South Africa from 1847 to 1852. During his colourful career he took part in the Peninsular War, witnessed with horror the burning of Washington DC during the War of 1812, and fought at Waterloo. Transferred to Cape Colony during the Cape Frontier War, he made an historic ride, galloping the 600 miles from Cape Town to Grahamstown in under six days, to tell terrified colonists that help was on the way. It is his wife whose memory is recalled by the town of Ladysmith in Natal.

The massive Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC was founded by the bequest of over £100,000 ‘to the United States of America for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men’ by English scientist James Smithson (1765— 1829), illegitimate son of Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland. He apparently made the bequest out of bitterness, writing, ‘My name shall live in the memory of man when the title of the Northumberlands are extinct and forgotten.’ One of the best-known of all Smiths was Sydney Smith (1771—1845). Lord Macaulay called him the ‘Smith of Smiths’, Abraham Lincoln quoted him frequently, Charles Dickens named a son after him, and even Queen Victoria found him amusing. Clergyman, wit and essayist, Smith was lauded in his lifetime as the greatest master of trenchant ridicule since Jonathan Swift and Voltaire, although he lacked their vitriol. For a quarter of a century he deflated pomposity and exposed hypocrisy as he fought for parliamentary reform and for emancipation of Catholics. Eventually made a canon of St Paul’s, he invented the still-common expression for a misfit: ‘a square peg in a round hole’. This master of quotable quotes once summed up his life by saying he had spent it like a razor, ‘in hot water or a scrape’.

The geographical centre of the United States lies in Smith County, Kansas.

Joseph Smith (1805—44), founder of the Mormon Church, claimed that an angel had presented him with golden plates and a book written in hieroglyphics which he translated with the aid of magic stones and had published as The Book of the Mormon. Having led his followers from New York State to Illinois, Smith claimed personal divinity and ruled with an iron hand until his plans to introduce polygamy caused violence and led to his arrest. While in goal he was killed by an angry mob.

London’s major meat market, Smithfield, north of St Paul’s, was long famous for its cattle sales. In the time of Mary Tudor it was the place where heretics were burnt at the stake. It takes its name from the Old English word smethe, meaning ‘smooth’.

Donald Alexander Smith, Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, served as High Commissioner for Canada from 1896 and at one time controlled both the Great Northern and the Canadian Pacific railways.

English-born Assyriologist George Smith (1840—76) achieved world-wide fame in 1872 by his translation of fragments of Chaldean tablets in the British Museum which described The Flood. Public interest ran so high that a London paper financed an expedition to search for the missing fragment. On the fifth day of digging Smith found it-an almost miraculous stroke of luck. His Chaldean Account was a nineteenth-century best-seller.

Smith-related places and geographic features are popular but not nearly as dominating as the surname itself. The United Kingdom has 6 towns with related names-Smith Green, Smithsfield, Smithincott, Smithston, Smithstown and Smithy Houses. Canada has a Smith, a Smithers and a Smithtown; Australia a Smithton; South Africa a Smithfield; and there’s a Smith in Argentina. The United States has 26 related-name towns-all are relatively small. Related-name geographic features are common.

With about 837,000 namesakes Smith is the most popular surname in England and Wales. There are over 69,000 Smiths in Scotland where it is also the most popular name. In Ireland it is estimated that with about 36,000, Smith is the 5th most popular surname. Smith is notably popular in and around Leicester where an estimated one in about 55 families bears the name. In descending numerical order Nottingham, Birmingham and Coventry are other Smith strongholds. Around the world Smiths are most common in Durban (one in 109 families), Sydney (one in 110) and Auckland (one in 133).

The United States has more Smiths than the entire population of West Yorkshire-an estimated total of just over 2,501,000 makes this their most popular surname.