And furthermore how does language play a part – I know red (rojas/rossi) is a Spanish and Italian surname but not English
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Have you seen [Reservoir Dogs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservoir_Dogs) ?
The main characters are Mr. Brown, Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange and Mr. Pink.
Grey/Gray is another one. I’m always surprised how many people with colour surnames name their boys “Matt”.
Australians used to call any body or dog with red hair “Blue” or “Bluey” it seems to have fallen out of favour now days. Although there is the cartoon series I guess its just not in the vernacular these days, it seems…………………..and those dogs are actually blue 🙂
Redd and Blue are English surnames. Basketball player Michael Redd and baseball player Vida Blue come to mind immediately.
Rossi (reds) and Verdi (greens) are two among the most common Italian surnames
It’s not the colour, but probably more about how easily available to noble families that colour was in that area
Related note: during the Highland Clearances in Scotland, the English – in an attempt to wipe out Scottish culture – would force people with Scottish surnames to have their family names changed to a color. There was a later exodus to US, Canada, and Australia as they were getting persecuted and you got a lot of spread that way.
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
It’s funny you bring this up because I was watching a movie yesterday and was surprised to see someone in the intro credits had the last name “Purple” which I’ve never seen before.
In european cultures yellow may not be commonly kept as a last name due to it’s association with cowardice. Maybe gold, brass, or straw could be used or blonde.
Edit: Apparently not true for German. May only be an english thing.
Not the conclusive reason but way back in some countries they decided to give you your last name based on occupation. Which is why you see a lot of Bakers, Coopers, Hindmans, etc. However, the colors were from different smith’s.
Blacksmiths were of course iron and steel.
Brownsmiths worked with copper and more brass
Greensmiths worked more with copper
Whitesmiths worked with tin
And then one half or the other was dropped at some point. Which is also why “Smith” is one of the most common names in the US. It was a popular profession and every town basically needed one when they started settling the country.
And this isn’t the only reason for the color last names but a large part of it for the US at least.
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