In the New York city directory the fourth most common name is now /Murphy/, an Irish name, and the fifth most common is /Meyer/, which is German and chiefly Jewish. The /Meyers/ are the /Smiths/ of Austria, and of most of Germany. They outnumber all other clans. After them come the /Schultzes/ and /Krauses/, just as the /Joneses/ and /Williamses/ follow the /Smiths/ in Great Britain. /Schultze/ and /Kraus/ do not seem to be very common names in New York, but /Schmidt/, /Muller/, /Schneider/ and /Klein/ appear among the fifty commonest.[6] /Cohen/ and /Levy/ rank eighth and ninth, and are both ahead of /Jones/, which is second in England, and /Williams/, which is third. /Taylor/, a highly typical British name, ranking fourth in England and Wales, is twenty-third in New York. Ahead of it, beside /Murphy/, /Meyer/, /Cohen/ and /Levy/, are /Schmidt/, /Ryan/, /O'Brien/, /Kelly/ and /Sullivan/. /Robinson/, which is twelfth in England, is thirty-ninth in New York; even /Schneider/ and /Muller/ are ahead of it. In Chicago /Olson/, /Schmidt/, /Meyer/, /Hansen/ and /Larsen/ are ahead of /Taylor/, and /Hoffman/ and /Becker/ are ahead of /Ward/; in Boston /Sullivan/ and /Murphy/ are ahead of any English name save /Smith/; in Philadelphia /Myers/ is just below /Robinson/. Nor, as I have said, is this large proliferation of foreign surnames confined to the large cities. There are whole regions in the Southwest in which /López/ and /Gonzales/ are far commoner names than /Smith/, /Brown/ or /Jones/, and whole regions in the Middle West wherein /Olson/ is commoner than either /Taylor/ or /Williams/, and places both North and South where /Duval/ is at least as common as /Brown/.
Moreover, the true proportions of this admixture of foreign blood are partly concealed by a wholesale anglicization of surnames, sometimes deliberate and sometimes the fruit of mere confusion. That /Smith/, /Brown/ and /Miller/ remain in first, second and third places among the surnames of New York is surely no sound evidence of Anglo-Saxon survival. The German and [Pg272] Scandinavian /Schmidt/ has undoubtedly contributed many a /Smith/, and /Braun/ many a /Brown/, and /Müller/ many a /Miller/. In the same way /Johnson/, which holds first place among Chicago surnames, and /Anderson/, which holds third, are plainly reinforced from Scandinavian sources, and the former may also owe something to the Russian /Ivanof/. /Miller/ is a relatively rare name in England; it is not among the fifty most common. But it stands thirtieth in Boston, fourth in New York and Baltimore, and second in Philadelphia.[7] In the last-named city the influence of /Müller/, probably borrowed from the Pennsylvania Dutch, is plainly indicated, and in Chicago it is likely that there are also contributions from the Scandinavian /Möller/, the Polish /Jannszewski/ and the Bohemian /Mlinár/. /Myers/, as we have seen, is a common surname in Philadelphia. So are /Fox/ and /Snyder/. In some part, at least, they have been reinforced by the Pennsylvania Dutch /Meyer/, /Fuchs/ and /Schneider/. Sometimes /Müller/ changes to /Miller/, sometimes to /Muller/, and sometimes it remains unchanged, but with the spelling made /Mueller/. /Muller/ and /Mueller/ do not appear among the commoner names in Philadelphia; all the /Müllers/ seem to have become /Millers/, thus putting /Miller/ in second place. But in Chicago, with /Miller/ in fourth place, there is also /Mueller/ in thirty-first place, and in New York, with /Miller/ in third place, there is also /Muller/ in twenty-fourth place.