I don’t mean a direct translation, but rather a common and/or “stereotypical” last name that is generally used as the equivalent of “Smith” in English.
Nguyễn - Vietnam
Add the “Long” to that Nguyễn and you have the John Smith of Vietnam
Pronounced “win” with a slight N sound before, for anyone else wondering
Silva - Brasil
In Portugal too
Literally it would be Kowalski, which is stereotypical common surname. Another common one is Nowak (meaning newguy vaguely).
Kim for Korea
In Italy, it is Rossi. Mario Rossi is the most common first name/last name combination.
In Russia, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov. I don’t know why they love so much Johannes from the Bible.
Kalējs, Kalvis, Kovalenko, Kuznetsov are some that I know around here.
Kuznetsov is a bit of an exception, it’s from the word кузня (kuznja) meaning forge. Koval would be Smith.
‘Kuznets’ means smith too. The difference is that kuznets is borrowed from Church Slavonic, while koval is authentically East Slavic.
Many people whose last name was Kovalenko became Kovalyov during Russification in Soviet Union.
Janssens and Peeters in Belgium (Flemish region)
Janssen or Jansen (without that final s) is also the default last name in the Netherlands
In the north you find a lot of de Vries (the… frosty? There’s an origin story involving Napoleon that I don’t know whether it’s correct)
Regarding Peeters, a crush of mine was called Peters, in Dutch Limburg. Besides that I don’t know the name so I’d guess it’s uncommon here
Smith. Also Murphy.
Jensen - Denmark
Sharma – India
The all-powerful “Sharma-ji ka beta” (“Mr. Sharma’s son”) is Indian parents’ go-to standard for their children
No way it’s Popa in Romania. Popescu is an insanely common name, by far the most common I’ve heard.
In Denmark it would be Nielsen and Jensen and first name would be Anne or Peter.
Peter Petersen, Jens Jensen and Niels Nielsen are not uncommon combinations.
Jens Jensen is actually the most common name in Denmark for men and for women it is Kirsten Jensen.
Jens got around it seems
Korean: 홍길동 (Hong Gil Dong) for “John Smith”, usually seen on form samples
Sanchez or Garcia for Spanish probably
Sazuki is common in Japan.
In Mexico, who adds a bunch of Spanish speakers, it would be Hernandez before those two. Lopez would also be up there.
Oh yeah Hernandez. Can’t believe I forgot that one.
Wales has to be Jones.
