why are some colours commonly found as surnames (white, brown, green) but not others (red, blue, yellow)

Question

And furthermore how does language play a part – I know red (rojas/rossi) is a Spanish and Italian surname but not English

In: 2480

Answer 1

Metallurgy.

A lot of early surnames started with tradesmen and described their trades. Smith is the most common English last name because it is part of several professions: blacksmith (working with iron), whitesmith (working with tin), greensmith (working with lead or copper), and brownsmith (working with copper or brass).

Most of these eventually were shortened to either their first or second half, leaving Smith as the most common surname, and Black, White, Green and Brown as relatively common ones.

Edit: whitesmiths are tin