A study of 45,600 surnames in Britain and Ireland by a team of researchers at the University of the West of England found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the five most popular family names in the UK are Smith (546,960), Jones (422,023), Williams (294,625), Taylor (250,780) and Davies (215,074). None of these surnames are particularly common in Woodchurch, so which family names occur more often than others in our part of Kent?
From the records of just over 9,000 baptisms held at Woodchurch between 1538 and 1989 (excluding nonconformist baptisms that were performed at the various chapels in the village and not the parish church), these are the top twenty surnames that appear most frequently:
How did the UK’s most popular surnames do in our chart? Well, Smith is just outside the list of top twenty names at 23rd, Jones is 45th, Taylor is 72nd, Williams is long way down at 431st and Davies yet further at 469th (although Davis is 28th).
You can search the online database of baptisms free of charge at the Woodchurch Ancestry Group website.