Smith - Definition and Overview

Smith can refer to a person who practices smithing, to a very common family name or to part of a place name or location.

Smithing

A smith is a person involved in the shaping of metal objects. The traditional working place for a smith is a forge or smithy. There are many different kinds of smiths:

• A coppersmith or brownsmith works with copper.
• A blacksmith works with iron and steel.
• A goldsmith works with gold.
• A locksmith works with locks.
• A silversmith or brightsmith works with silver.
• A tinsmith or whitesmith works with tin ("white iron").
• A pewtersmith works with pewter
• The word whitesmith can also refer to someone who polishes or finishes metal as opposed to forging it.

In pre-industrialized times, a smith was a person of high or special social standing, as he would supply the metal tools needed for efficient farming (especially the plough).

See also Category:Smiths

Family name

Smith is a common family name amongst those of English descent. Moreover, it was often taken by non-English immigrants in order to blend into the majority culture more easily. It is consequently the most common surname in the United States, comprising more than 1% of the population counted during the 1990 census.

Names with disambiguation pages:

• Adam Smith
• Chris Smith
• David Smith
• Donald Smith
• Edward Smith (VC)
• George Smith
• Harry Smith
• Ian Smith
• Jack Smith
• John Smith – regarded as the most common name in England
• Michael Smith
• Paul Smith
• Richard Smith
• Robert Smith (includes Bob Smith)
• Samuel Smith
• Steven Smith
• Thomas Smith and Tom Smith
• William Smith

The character Agent Smith from the Matrix series also uses the ubiquitous name, as a representative of the entire system of the Matrix.

International use

In other languages cognates to English "smith" tend to be very popular family names too:

• Schmidt, Schmitt in German
• Kowalski, Kowal in Polish
• Ferrari in Italian
• Kovac in Serbo-Croatian languages

Place names and locations

Smith is a common part of a place name or locations, particularly in the United States of America.

• Deaf Smith County, Texas
• Fort Smith, Arkansas
• Fort Smith, Montana
• Redbird Smith, Oklahoma
• Smith Center, Kansas
• Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts
• Smith County, Kansas
• Smith County, Mississippi
• Smith County, Tennessee
• Smith County, Texas
• Smith Island, Maryland
• Smith Islands National Park in Queensland, Australia
• Smith Mills, Massachusetts
• Smith River in western USA
• Smith Township, Pennsylvania
• Smith Valley, Nevada
• Smith Village, Oklahoma
• Smiths Station, Alabama

See also:

• Smithfield
• Smithland
• Smithville

Other uses of "smith"

• The Smiths were an English rock band.
• Smith & Wesson, a manufacturer of handguns
• W H Smith, a high street chain of bookshops in United Kingdom

Other languages

• Schmidt – German
• Haddad – Arabic