When I was flying back from Europe to Toronto in 1986, I ran into a fellow passenger who was from Texas. He lived up to every stereotype with a drawl and a cowboy hat and boots. He mentioned that he had been visiting England and Wales to find out about his ancestry.

This was before things like Ancestry.com, so he was apparently just wandering around England and Wales looking for people with his family name.

“What name is that?” I asked.

“Jones.”

He talked a bit more about his lack of success in finding relatives although he said that he found a lot of people named Jones.

I’ll bet. At that time I knew that Jones was one of the most popular last names in England and probably the most popular last name in Wales.

---

I did a bit of internet searching. Jones is the second most popular last name in England and I confirmed that it is the most popular last name in Wales.

---

I also looked up the origin of the name Jones. Before the 1500s, the Welsh didn’t use last names. In the 1500s, they were ordered to adopt last names. A lot of them used family names and used the “s” suffix to denote “son of”. Since an awful lot of them had “John” as a father, “Jones became pretty popular.

---

I can’t imagine how many Joneses this guy must’ve pestered asking if they were relatives.