Where does the last name Jones come from?
In Wales when the English started to take a census and gave the
welsh last names, the most common name was sion (shawn) which is
John in Welsh. The last name given by the English was actually the
name of the father of the person they asked. Hence if your name was
Owain and your fathers name was Sion, in Welsh that is Owain ab
Sion. (Owain son of John) So the English put it down as Jones for a
last name. This is also how the last names of John Johns and
Johnson were derived. This is why Jones became such a common name
in Wales and does not mean that people were actually related at
that time. Funny enough, there is no J in the Welsh alphabet.