10 most difficult surnames riddles

Martin Van Buren was the eighth president of the United States. 'Van' suggests Dutch origin of his surname, but the capitalized form indicates anglicised version - like Eddie Van Halen (as opposite to Dutch lower-case Vincent van Gogh).

He is known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the "short short" form stories of 1 to 3 pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. His short story called "Knock" has only two sentences: "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..."

"Ferrari" is the third most common surname in Italy. The word has the same root as Italian "ferro" (iron) or Latin "ferrum" (thus, Fe for iron).

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer and jazz pianist. He was a heavy smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes. He believed that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice the rich sound it had. His many years of smoking caught up with him, resulting in his death from lung cancer on February 15, 1965. He died at the early age of 45 years old.

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was a Soviet astronaut, general major pilot and two-time Hero of the Soviet Union. On 18 March 1965, he became the first human to conduct extra-vehicular activity, exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for a 12-minute spacewalk.

Such an occupational surname could have been passed to following generations only in areas dominated by the Orthodox church, where priests are allowed to marry and have children. Popescu is the most common surname in Romania.

Wilhelm was an Austrian and later American chess master, and the first undisputed World Chess Champion, from 1886 to 1894. He was also a highly influential writer and chess theoretician. He is considered to be the founder of the scientific approach to chess, unveiling in 1873 a new positional style of play.

These warrior-like surnames are at positions 2-7. The most common surname in Turkey is Öztürk, meaning "pure Turk".

German 'von', when it is used as a part of a family name, it is usually a nobiliary particle, like the French, Galician, Spanish and Portuguese 'de'. In contrast to these, Dutch (or Flemish) 'van' simply means 'of', 'from' and is not an indication of nobility.

The most common last name in China is Wang, which means king. There are around 93 million people using it.