"I'd like a room. Last name, er, um, Smith!"

That hotel guest make not be kidding. According to Forebears, a website that collects data on counties and cities, Smith is the 4th most common surname in South Dakota.

Johnson, Anderson, and Nelson topped Smith in the findings, though. In fact, 1,915 people have the last name of Johnson in South Dakota! That would be a cool convention.

Miller's, Peterson's and Olsen's, you're in the top 10 as well.

Here's the top 10, and how many people have the name:

  1. Johnson - 1,915
  2. Anderson - 1,200
  3. Nelson - 913
  4. Smith - 841
  5. Miller - 817
  6. Peterson - 778
  7. Olson - 754
  8. Larson - 646
  9. Thompson - 554
  10. Hanson - 527

See the theme here? Nearly all of the most common names have 'son' at the end. Historically, the suffix -'son' simply indicates that person was the son of their father and can be traced back to Icelandic, Nordic, and Swedish, and even Dutch traditions.

Find out if your surname made the top 88 here.


See Also:

More From KYBB-FM / B102.7