The Heritage Volume
Many people share your name.
Only your family
shares its story.
The Heritage Volume is the long form of the Smith name: where it began, the coat of arms, the paper trail and the crossing, with the source named for every claim. A digital volume, yours to keep.
Your surname goes in already filled in.
The top ten
The most common
full names in the United States.
Michael Smith leads, with about 29,600 people. Tap any name to see its card.
How we count
Official records,
country by country.
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11
countries, counted
Their census bureaus and population registers publish how many people carry each surname. We read each one as it is, with its own year.
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1,374,125
surnames, one by one
Every surname those registers list, from the U.S. Census to Poland’s PESEL register, with how many people carry it.
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705,965
first names, measured
How common each first name is, from population and birth records — in the U.S., weighted by who is alive today. The surname count, times the share of the first name: that is your name.
In the United States, one step further
The U.S. census also records the family background of each surname, so there we count within each group: names travel together in real families. Most name counters skip that step, and for a name like Maria Garcia they are far off.
- United States — U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 surname file (public domain)
- Spain — Spanish census of surnames, 1 January 2025. Elaboración propia con datos extraídos del sitio web del INE: www.ine.es
- Poland — PESEL register, Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland (dane.gov.pl), 20 January 2026 — CC0
- France — INSEE, Fichier des noms, births 1891–2000 — Licence Ouverte / Open Licence (Etalab), updated 22 May 2018
- Switzerland — Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), surnames of the permanent resident population by canton, 2025
- Belgium — Statbel (Statistics Belgium), family names of the population by municipality, 1 January 2026 — CC BY 4.0
- Argentina — RENAPER (National Registry of Persons, Argentina), surnames of residents by province, December 2021 — CC BY 4.0
- Sweden — own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0
- Norway — Statistics Norway (SSB, ssb.no), table 12891, 2025 — CC BY 4.0
- Finland — Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV), Finland, surname statistics, August 2026 — CC BY 4.0
- Slovenia — Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), family names of the population, 1 January 2026
- First names, United States — U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 first names; Social Security Administration, births 1991–2025 and cohort life tables, 2026 Trustees Report (public domain); Tzioumis, K. (2018), Demographic aspects of first names, Scientific Data (CC0)
- First names, Spain — first names of the resident population, 1 January 2025 (INE) — CC BY 4.0. Elaboración propia con datos extraídos del sitio web del INE: www.ine.es
- First names, Poland — PESEL register, first given names of living people, Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland (dane.gov.pl), 20 January 2026 — CC0
- First names, Sweden — own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), first names in use, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0
- First names, Slovenia — own calculations based on data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), first names of the population, 1 January 2026
- First names, Switzerland — Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), first names of the population by year of birth, Switzerland, 2025 (STATPOP), opendata.swiss/de/dataset/weibliche-vornamen-der-bevolkerung-nach-jahrgang-schweiz-2025 and opendata.swiss/de/dataset/mannliche-vornamen-der-bevolkerung-nach-jahrgang-schweiz-2025
- First names, Norway — Statistics Norway (SSB), ssb.no, table 10501, first names with 200 or more bearers, 2025 — CC BY 4.0
- First names, Finland — Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV), Finland, first names of living Finnish citizens, 2 February 2026 — CC BY 4.0
- First names, Belgium — Statbel (Statistics Belgium), first names of the population by municipality, 1 January 2018 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 5 or more bearers in a municipality: a minimum)
- Baby names, Canada — Statistics Canada, first names at birth, 1991–2025 (table 17-10-0147-01) — Statistics Canada Open Licence
- Baby names, the United Kingdom — Office for National Statistics (England and Wales), National Records of Scotland and NISRA (Northern Ireland), baby names, 2000–2025 — Open Government Licence v3.0
- Baby names, Ireland — Central Statistics Office (CSO), girls’ and boys’ names in Ireland, 1964–2025 — CC BY 4.0
- Baby names, New South Wales — NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, popular baby names 1952–2025 — CC BY 3.0 AU (each name counted in the years it was in the state’s top 100)
- Baby names, Austria — Datenquelle: Statistik Austria - data.statistik.gv.at, first names of newborns by year of birth, 1984–2025 (until 2009 babies with Austrian citizenship only) — CC BY 4.0
- Baby names, New Zealand — Department of Internal Affairs (Te Tari Taiwhenua), baby name counts 1900–2025 (names given 10+ times a year) — CC BY 4.0
- Baby names, Italy — ISTAT, names of children born in Italy (iscritti in anagrafe per nascita), 1999–2024: full lists 2022–2024, top 100 per sex 1999–2021 — CC BY 4.0
- Baby names, Argentina — RENAPER (National Registry of Persons, Argentina), first names of people born in Argentina by province and year, 2012–2024 — CC BY 4.0 (each first name counted on its own)
- First names, Latvia — Pilsonības un migrācijas lietu pārvalde (PMLP, Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs), personal names in the Register of Natural Persons, 1 July 2026 — CC0 1.0 (names with 5 or more bearers)
- Baby names, France — Insee, Fichier des prénoms, 2026 edition (births 1900–2025) — Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0
None of these bodies endorses, sponsors or is associated with FamilyCrests. Every result is an estimate, and we say so.
Questions
Good to know.
No, it is an estimate, and we say so on every result. Countries count surnames and first names separately, never the two together. We combine them: how many people carry the surname in a country, times how common the first name is there. In the United States we go one step further and account for the family background the census records for each surname.
From the official records of each country: census bureaus and population registers, such as the U.S. Census Bureau and Social Security Administration, Spain’s National Statistics Institute, Poland’s PESEL register and the statistics offices of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium and Slovenia, plus the birth registers of Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Austria, Italy and France. Every figure on the card names the register it comes from.
Each register only publishes surnames carried by a minimum number of people, such as 100 in the United States or 20 in Spain, so a very rare surname may not appear. If that happens, your name is genuinely uncommon. Your surname may still have its own page in the Surname Index.
Surnames in 11 countries: the United States, Spain, Poland, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Slovenia. Some countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, do not publish how many people carry each surname, so for visitors from there we show the name where it is counted and, where the country publishes it, how many babies have been given the first name.
No. Almost every register counts the people living when it was taken: residents in Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Slovenia, and the 2010 census in the United States, where each first name is also weighted by who is alive today, using Social Security birth records and life tables. France is the exception: its register counts births from 1891 to 2000, and the card says so.
No. The name is used only to work out the count. We do not ask for an email, and nothing is saved to an account.
Yes. No account, no sign-up and no payment. The card is yours to download and share.
The Surname Index
Your surname has
a story too.
What it meant, where it began and how many people carry it today, country by country. Free to read.