Smith Genealogy Surname Resource Center

Smith, Smyth, Smythe.

Occup. 'the smith.' Common to every village in England, north, south, east, and west. The y in Smyth is the almost invariable spelling in early rolls, so that it cannot exactly be styled a modern affectation. There are 300,000 Smiths in England; very different from the state of Israel, when there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel  (1 Sam. xiii. 19). This always seems to me the hardest verse in the Bible to read in Church without smiling; the most difficult, with regard to proper emphasis, being Luke xxiv. 25.

Philip le Smethe co. Hunts, 1273. A.
William le Smeth, co. Oxf., ibid.
William le Smyth, co. Sussex, ibid.

The following occur on one single page, representing the village of Kimberworth:

Johannes Tagge, smyght, 1379: P. T. Yorks. p. 67.
Willelmus Smyght, 1379: ibid.
Johannes Trogne, smyght, 1379: ibid.
Ricardus Sawdre, smyght, 1379 : ibid.
Robertus Smyght, 1379: ibid.
Johannes Losseland, smyght, 1379 ibid. London, 1194, 23, 3; Philadelphia, 2971, 84, 9.

German-Koopman is low-german for as Schmidt (Smith), that means- trader.

The word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Smitan, to smite or strike.

Smith Coat of Arms