I tried to make this one a bit easier than my last names quiz by focusing on common surnames that I thought many people could guess (along with a couple curveballs for the mr. and mrs. smartypants out there). Let me know if you think this is an improvement or not.
All common names in the U.S., too. Nguyen is, I think, the most common name per capita in any country. Something like 25% of the people in Vietnam have that name. If you typed in Chang you would have gotten Chen for Taiwan, it is sometimes spelled that way. I included many alternate spellings for Wang, as well. Le/Li/Lee is very common in China but it is more common in Korea. Roughly half of all people in Korea have one of three last names: Pak/Park, Lee, or Kim.
Anyone taking this quiz who enjoyed it... go take the sequel I made Common Surnames #2!! Just click on my name and you can find it. I don't know what this one and my other names quiz were so popular... but that one has only been taken 7 times total. :P Just hard to see/find user-made quizzes now.
It's a Roald Dahl quote. From Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, the president's trying to call the Chinese something... I forget what, the guy in charge. And so he calls and gets a guy named Mr. Wing. And then a guy named Mr. Wong. And he says, 'What's going on?' and another guy says, 'Well, there are so many Wings and Wongs in China that every time you wing you get the wong number!'
I don't really agree with you accepting "Hansen" for "Jensen". While both are very common in Denmark they are not the same name. Also thought it would be "Karlsson" for Sweden. Well it wasn't :)
I'd agree with alotaibi in Saudi Arabia... I work in an international office at a school and a huge amount of them are alotaibi (english spelling can vary)... also how'd i miss Nguyan and Murphy but get Rossi and Al-Otaibah?!?!
I worked in Saudi Arabia for six years. I knew some Otaibis. But it depends on where you are as the tribes tend to stay in certain areas.. like Rashidis around Ha'il, Sharifs in Mecca, Dossarys around Khobar, the Dawasir around Wadi al-Dawasir (obviously), and so on. The asterisk is because I found some conflicting data. In my own personal experience, I feel like I encountered a lot more Al-Shammarys and Al-Rashidis than Al-Otaibis.