ON the streets or in the pubs of Lancashire, it would not take long to find a Smith, Taylor or Jones ­— the three most popular surnames in the county... and the country.

Data compiled by the analytical website Forebears details a list of every surname registered by people born in Lancashire, and there are little to no surprises here.

All the data listed in this article was gathered in 2014.

Smith takes top spot in both Lancashire and England, with 2.69 per cent (17,038) of the nation’s Smith’s living in the red rose county.

Taylor (12,128), Jones (8,922), Wilson (7,394) and Brown (7,223) make up the rest of the top five - with Forebears stating that there are 119,791 unique surnames in Lancashire, with an average of 12 people per name.

According to the figures, the least common surnames - at a rate of one per 5,369 people with an incidence of 275 or 274 - are Caton, Magee, Miles, Traynor, Akram, Appleby, Goddard, Grogan, Herbert and Hodge.

Where forenames are concerned, the data shows a similar nationally aligned trend.

John (39,456) is the most popular name in the county, though second in the country, with 3.5 per cent of the country's Johns living in Lancashire.

David (36,584), the most popular name in the country, ranks second in the Lancashire list, while Michael (24,420) takes third spot in both county and country.

As for unpopular, there are believed to be only 87 named Royston, along with Asia and Angie - making these Lancashire’s most endangered names.

Perhaps set for a post-pandemic comeback despite its current bad press, Rona sits on 87 - though many would opt for Faith, which sits on the same figure of 87 across the whole of Lancashire.