Cornwall’s 50 commonest surnames

Another ten surnames will take us to 50, actually 51 as there is a tie for 50th place. The list is still dominated by surnames derived from given or first names. This is similar to Wales and a symptom of the relatively late adoption of surnames in mid and west Cornwall when compared with England (and with east Cornwall).

rank	surname	type	number of households
41	Edwards	personal name	243
42	Gilbert/Gillbard	personal name	239
43	Eddy	personal name	237
44	Rundle	nickname/personal name	230
45	Uren	personal name	228
46	Jeffery	personal name	224
47	Wills	personal name	223
48	Rickard	personal name	212
49	Hodge	personal name	204
=50	Reed/Read	multiple	200
=50	Reynolds	personal name	200

Uren is a rare example of a first name from Celtic roots rather than the more usual Norman-French.

Maps of all these surnames in the 1500s and 1641 can be found here.

Further details of most will be found in my The Surnames of Cornwall.

If you have found the material on this site of use then you may be interested in my recent books published under the Coserg imprint. For a list see here.