The top 20 most common Canadian surnames
- 1. Li
- 2. Smith
- 3. Lam
- 4. Martin
- 5. Brown
- 6. Roy
- 7. Tremblay
- 8. Lee
- 9. Gagnon
- 10. Wilson
- 11. Clark
- 12. Johnson
- 13. White
- 14. Williams
- 15. Côté
- 16. Taylor
- 17. Campbell
- 18. Anderson
- 19. Chan
- 20. Jones
Source: infoUSA
As of 2006, Li is the most common surname in this country, at least according to a countrywide telephone directory.
Citing privacy reasons, Statistics Canada does not make available the most common surnames that it collects through the census. Other countries, notably the U.S., do, but this is not Canada's way and as a result the following lists have been cobbled together from a compendium of searchable telephone directories. In this case, the source is a Nebraska-based company called infoUSA, which claims to have put together a directory of every telephone listing in Canada.
It's an unscientific study of surnames — and, of course, doesn't take into account those who've ditched their landlines for cellphones, or homes with unlisted numbers. It also ranks them by household, not necessarily individuals.
But it does give an indication of how much more ethnically diverse Canada has become compared to just a few decades ago.
Anglophone names such as Smith, Martin, Johnson and Harris, which used to top the White Pages lists until about the 1970s, are now evenly interspersed with newer Canadian names such as Chan, Patel, Ng and Mah.
| Top 20 surnames in some Canadian cities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vancouver | Toronto | Montreal |
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| Source: Telus | Source: Bell Canada | |
| Calgary | Edmonton |
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|---|---|
| Source: Telus | Source: Telus |
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