Most Common Last Names in the U.S.
Surnames, or family names, were first used during medieval times and usually referred to a person's occupation (i.e. Miller, Tailor, Potter, Weaver, Baker). Other common surnames came from a father's first name and then "son" was added, as in Stevenson, Davidson, Robertson or Richardson. Surnames could also come from places--a hint that a name comes from a place might be the endings -field, -ford, -brook, or -wood, for example. The trend of naming people after the places that they come from goes beyond the English language, many German, Dutch Norwegian and Swedish last names end in -berg (which means mountain in those languages) .
In the United States, Smith was the most common name in in 1990 and retained that spot ten years later. Garcia jumped in popularity from 18th-most-popular name in 1990 to sixth-most-popular in 2010. Robinson was the 20th-most-popular name in 1990 but fell off the list.
Visit Family Name Search to discover the meanings and origins of last names.
SURNAME | RANK | FREQUENCY (COUNT) | PROPORTION PER 100,000 POPULATION |
SMITH | 1 | 2,442,977 | 828.2 |
JOHNSON | 2 | 1,932,812 | 655.2 |
WILLIAMS | 3 | 1,625,252 | 551.0 |
BROWN | 4 | 1,437,026 | 487.2 |
JONES | 5 | 1,425,470 | 483.2 |
GARCIA | 6 | 1,166,120 | 395.3 |
MILLER | 7 | 1,161,437 | 393.7 |
DAVIS | 8 | 1,116,357 | 378.5 |
RODRIGUEZ | 9 | 1,094,924 | 371.2 |
MARTINEZ | 10 | 1,060,159 | 359.4 |
HERNANDEZ | 11 | 1,043,281 | 353.7 |
LOPEZ | 12 | 874,523 | 296.5 |
GONZALEZ | 13 | 841,025 | 285.1 |
WILSON | 14 | 801,882 | 271.8 |
ANDERSON | 15 | 784,404 | 265.9 |
THOMAS | 16 | 756,142 | 256.3 |
TAYLOR | 17 | 751,209 | 254.7 |
MOORE | 18 | 724,374 | 245.6 |
JACKSON | 19 | 708,099 | 240.1 |
MARTIN | 20 | 702,625 | 238.2 |
LEE | 21 | 693,023 | 234.9 |
PEREZ | 22 | 681,645 | 231.1 |
THOMPSON | 23 | 664,644 | 225.3 |
WHITE | 24 | 660,491 | 223.9 |
HARRIS | 25 | 624,252 | 211.6 |
SANCHEZ | 26 | 612,752 | 207.7 |
CLARK | 27 | 562,679 | 190.8 |