National Records of Scotland

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Most Common Surnames in Birth, Marriage and Death registers

Most Common Surnames in Birth, Marriage and Death registers

Last update: 30 March 2023
Frequency: Annual                                  

This section provides information on the surnames that occur most often in Scotland’s registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths for various years back to 1975. Available via the "List of Data Tables" link are a separate list for each of the years concerned, and a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file which contains summary records which cover all the years for which those lists have been produced. Some other information about surnames in Scotland is available from an Occasional Paper which was published in 2003.

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Main Points 
(PDF 80 KB)

(Last update: 23 March 2021)

data-icon List of Data Tables
 
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Background

(PDF 265 KB)

   

Statistical Service in Scotland

Occasional Paper: Surnames in Scotland over the last 140 years
This paper was published in 2003. Please note that some of the information in this paper is on a different basis from that available from the note, table, lists and CSV file which are referred to above.

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