English Surnames (British-English)

Writers' Corner
1

I’m an American, but I’ve found myself putting in characters of different countries of origin into my stories. It’s pretty easy to research Russian naming traditions, Spanish naming traditions, etc. but I find it hard to get a proper “British” name. I really mean English, since I’m not meaning Welsh or Scottish, but shrug.

I’d appreciate a list of really English sounding surnames (surnames specifically, but I wouldn’t raise my nose at any first names), something where I read it and can just picture a [name_u]Brit[/name_u] drinking tea (shitty stereotype, I know, but you know what I mean right?) I’m talking [name_m]Arthur[/name_m] Dent, [name_m]Benedict[/name_m] Cumberbatch, [name_m]Tom[/name_m] Hiddleston…that’s all I can think of but some help for truly English names would be nice D:

2

Here’s a list of most common surnames in [name_m]Britain[/name_m]: http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/most-common-surnames-in-great-britain.html

A few from the list include:
Atkinson
Cunningham
[name_m]Phillips[/name_m]
[name_m]Osborne[/name_m]
Woodward
[name_m]Whittaker[/name_m]
[name_m]Tomlinson[/name_m]

3

Here are some English surnames that sound VERY British to me but I don’t know if they will to you (It’s a bit hard to know because I don’t live in a English speaking country and maybe they are often used in [name_u]America[/name_u] or Australia too but not here.):
[name_u]Mason[/name_u], [name_m]Grantham[/name_m], [name_m]Branson[/name_m], [name_m]Baxter[/name_m], [name_u]Carlisle[/name_u],

And these are some non surnames I think sound very British:
[name_m]Archibald[/name_m]/[name_m]Archie[/name_m], [name_m]Charles[/name_m], [name_m]Maxwell[/name_m], [name_m]William[/name_m] [name_m]Edward[/name_m]/[name_m]Eddie[/name_m], [name_m]Richard[/name_m], [name_m]Reginald[/name_m]/[name_u]Reggie[/name_u], [name_m]Anthony[/name_m], [name_m]Earl[/name_m]

4

For future reference, a good resource for surnames (of almost any origin) would be surnames.behindthename.com.
For an extremely British sounding surname, what about…
Ainsworth, Appleby, Attwood, Babcock, [name_u]Baldwin[/name_u], Beaumont, Collingwood, Coombs, Fairclough, Goddard, Hargrave, [name_u]Norris[/name_u], [name_m]Parish[/name_m], [name_m]Rhodes[/name_m], Seabrooke