It's Lee and Li, not Smith, that dominate the surname rankings

Vancouver

What's in a name? In Vancouver, it's evidence of the changing face of the city. A popular game in town these days is figuring out where your surname ranks among those of other Vancouver residents. In the past few weeks, The Vancouver Sun newspaper's website has received more than 100,000 visitors to its new database of surnames in the Vancouver area.

Visitors can enter their name and find out how many others share the same last name. The database has made clear a couple of things: Vancouver is no longer the city it was just a couple of decades ago, and anyone doubting that the city is an Asian metropolis is woefully out of date. In 1991, Smith was the most common surname in Vancouver. Now Lee is the new Smith. Combined with Li, there are twice as many in Vancouver as there are Smiths. The list in The Vancouver Sun and a national one put together by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last summer are compiled from phone books.

A recent provincial campaign had two Richard Lees running in the same riding and they had to be distinguished by initials (the winning Richard Lee dropped the middle initial after his win). And a few terms ago, there were two Lees, Don and Daniel, elected to the Vancouver City Council. But when their party, the Non-Partisan Association lost favour with residents, the council was left Lee-less.

Last election, the Lee name was resurrected in civic politics with the election of Bar-Chya (British Columbia) Lee to a council seat.

According to Statistics Canada, nearly one in four Canadians by 2017 is expected to belong to a visible minority. In Vancouver, the non-Asian surnames are in the minority. Smith is not even on the podium anymore in the Vancouver surname rankings, finishing a distant fourth behind Lee/Li, Wong and Chan.