Where the Smith name comes from

Smith is the metalworker, from the Old English smith, one who works in metal, a word related to smitan, to strike. It is the most common surname in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the fifth most common in Ireland. It was already in use before inherited surnames were normal at all: Ecceard Smith of County Durham is on record in 975.

The variants map the trade rather than the family. Blacksmith worked iron, Whitesmith tin, Coppersmith and Greensmith copper, and Arrowsmith, Shoesmith, Bladesmith and Naismith are named for what came off the anvil. The German Schmidt and the Polish Kowalski were both anglicised to Smith on arrival in America, in peacetime as well as in war.