This story was first published in November 2019.
A list of the most common surnames in every country has been revealed, with Smith unsurprisingly taking New Zealand's top spot.
Data collected from Ancestry.com and Oxford University by online lending firm NetCredit shows Australia, the US, the UK and Canada, share Smith as its most popular last name with NZ, while South Africa's most popular is Nkosi.
For Fiji, Kumar was revealed as its most common while Gonzalez was the most popular surname in Venezuela, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina.
In Asia, records show Tan is the most popular last name in both Malaysia and Singapore.
The world's most populous countries, China and India, have Wang and Devi as their most common surnames.
NetCredit senior content writer Barbara Davidson says the study of last names from each nation shows the history of human civilisation.
"Historians can form critical insights into culture and settlement patterns, genealogists can trace ancestral roots, and regular people can develop their sense of world-historical identity.
"Human society is more culturally diverse than at any other point in history."
The list of famous Kiwis with the last name Smith could go on forever, but a few that spring to mind include All Blacks Aaron, Conrad and Ben Smith, former NZ cricketer Ian, National politician Nick, and musician Hollie.
Some of the most popular surnames:
Smith (NZ, Australia, US, UK and Canada); Kumar (Fiji); Latu (Tonga); Gonzalez (Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Paraguay); Rodriguez (Uruguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Colombia); Da Silva (Brazil); Hernandez (Mexico and Honduras); Murphy (Ireland); De Jong (Netherlands); Perera (Sri Lanka); Nguyen (Vietnam); Wang (China); Devi (India); Nkosi (South Africa). View the full list here.
