National Records of Scotland

100 Most Common Surnames

100 Most Common Surnames

This is a correction to the 100 Most Common Surnames lists, which have since been superseded by more comprehensive information about the Most Common Surnames in Birth, Marriage and Death registers for each year from 2013 onwards, and for every fifth year from 2010 back to 1975.

Note:
Correction 25 September 2014

The surname Williams was omitted from the original lists. The error has now been rectified and corrections have been made to both tables below. We have also corrected the rankings of the names with equal numbers of occurrences.

Surnames occurring most often on the birth, death and marriage registers in Scotland in 1995 by position. (One name on the birth and death registers and two on the marriage register) Alphabetical listing below. 

Position Name Number   Position Name Number
1 SMITH 2273   51 MARSHALL 419
2 BROWN 1659   52 STEVENSON 414
3 WILSON 1539   53 WOOD 403
4 THOMSON 1373   54 SUTHERLAND 396
5 ROBERTSON 1370   55 CRAIG 394
6 CAMPBELL 1361   56 WRIGHT 391
7 STEWART 1278   57 MCKENZIE 373
8 ANDERSON 1187   58 KENNEDY 372
9 MACDONALD 980   59 JONES 371
10 SCOTT 963   60= BURNS 367
11 REID 936   60= WHITE 367
12 MURRAY 914   62 MUIR 362
13 TAYLOR 877   63 MURPHY 360
14 CLARK 826   64 JOHNSTONE 358
15 MITCHELL 760   65 HUGHES 355
16 ROSS 746   66 WATT 354
17 WALKER 730   67 MCMILLAN 352
18 PATERSON 708   68 MCINTOSH 350
19 YOUNG 698   69 MILNE 348
20 WATSON 696   70 MUNRO 345
21 MORRISON 680   71 RITCHIE 339
22 MILLER 659   72 DICKSON 333
23 FRASER 651   73 BRUCE 332
24 DAVIDSON 639   74 KING 329
25= GRAY 632   75 CRAWFORD 324
25= MCDONALD 632   76 DOCHERTY 322
27 HENDERSON 629   77 MILLAR 321
28 JOHNSTON 617   78 CUNNINGHAM 316
29 HAMILTON 614   79 SINCLAIR 309
30 GRAHAM 613   80 WILLIAMSON 300
31 KERR 593   81 HILL 299
32 SIMPSON 591   82 MCGREGOR 297
33 MARTIN 590   83 MCKAY 293
34 FERGUSON 584   84= BOYLE 290
35 CAMERON 578   84= SHAW 290
36 DUNCAN 558   86 FLEMING 288
37 HUNTER 556   87 MOORE 286
38 KELLY 550   88= CHRISTIE 282
39 BELL 547   88= DOUGLAS 282
40 GRANT 539   90 DONALDSON 281
41 MACKENZIE 496   91 ALEXANDER 276
42 MACKAY 488   92 MACLEAN 273
43 ALLAN 485   93 FORBES 266
44 BLACK 484   94 WILLIAMS 260
45 MACLEOD 483   95 MCINTYRE 256
46 MCLEAN 477   96= FINDLAY 255
47 RUSSELL 466   96= JAMIESON 255
48 GIBSON 456   98 AITKEN 254
49 WALLACE 443   99= REILLY 248
50 GORDON 435   99= THOMPSON 248

Surnames occurring most often on the birth, death and marriage registers in Scotland in 1995 listed alphabetically. (One name on the birth and death registers and two on the marriage register)

Name Position   Name Position
AITKEN 98   MACLEOD 45
ALEXANDER 91   MARSHALL 51
ALLAN 43   MARTIN 33
ANDERSON 8   MCDONALD 25=
BELL 39   MCGREGOR 82
BLACK 44   MCINTOSH 68
BOYLE 84=   MCINTYRE 95
BROWN 2   MCKAY 83
BRUCE 73   MCKENZIE 57
BURNS 60=   MCLEAN 46
CAMERON 35   MCMILLAN 67
CAMPBELL 6   MILLAR 77
CHRISTIE 88=   MILLER 22
CLARK 14   MILNE 69
CRAIG 55   MITCHELL 15
CRAWFORD 75   MOORE 87
CUNNINGHAM 78   MORRISON 21
DAVIDSON 24   MUIR 62
DICKSON 72   MUNRO 70
DOCHERTY 76   MURPHY 63
DONALDSON 90   MURRAY 12
DOUGLAS 88=   PATERSON 18
DUNCAN 36   REID 11
FERGUSON 34   REILLY 99=
FINDLAY 96=   RITCHIE 71
FLEMING 86   ROBERTSON 5
FORBES 93   ROSS 16
FRASER 23   RUSSELL 47
GIBSON 48   SCOTT 10
GORDON 50   SHAW 84=
GRAHAM 30   SIMPSON 32
GRANT 40   SINCLAIR 79
GRAY 25=   SMITH 1
HAMILTON 29   STEVENSON 52
HENDERSON 27   STEWART 7
HILL 81   SUTHERLAND 54
HUGHES 65   TAYLOR 13
HUNTER 37   THOMPSON 99=
JAMIESON 96=   THOMSON 4
JOHNSTON 28   WALKER 17
JOHNSTONE 64   WALLACE 49
JONES 59   WATSON 20
KELLY 38   WATT 66
KENNEDY 58   WHITE 60=
KERR 31   WILLIAMS 94
KING 74   WILLIAMSON 80
MACDONALD 9   WILSON 3
MACKAY 42   WOOD 53
MACKENZIE 41   WRIGHT 56
MACLEAN 92   YOUNG 19