The best count of last names in the United States comes from the Census Bureau. From the 2010 Census, it published how many people had every surname that appeared at least 100 times: 162,253 surnames, shared by 265,667,228 people. Find your last name in that list and you have a solid answer to how many people in the US share it, or at least how many did in 2010.
This guide shows what the Census list says about common and rare surnames, how the most common ones changed between the 2000 and 2010 counts, and how to look up your own.
The Most Common Last Names in the US
Smith is the most common surname in the 2010 Census, with 2,442,977 people, about 828 of every 100,000 people counted. These are the 15 most common:
| Rank | Surname | People in the 2010 Census | Per 100,000 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smith | 2,442,977 | 828.19 |
| 2 | Johnson | 1,932,812 | 655.24 |
| 3 | Williams | 1,625,252 | 550.97 |
| 4 | Brown | 1,437,026 | 487.16 |
| 5 | Jones | 1,425,470 | 483.24 |
| 6 | Garcia | 1,166,120 | 395.32 |
| 7 | Miller | 1,161,437 | 393.74 |
| 8 | Davis | 1,116,357 | 378.45 |
| 9 | Rodriguez | 1,094,924 | 371.19 |
| 10 | Martinez | 1,060,159 | 359.4 |
| 11 | Hernandez | 1,043,281 | 353.68 |
| 12 | Lopez | 874,523 | 296.47 |
| 13 | Gonzalez | 841,025 | 285.11 |
| 14 | Wilson | 801,882 | 271.84 |
| 15 | Anderson | 784,404 | 265.92 |
How Rare Is Your Last Name?
A handful of surnames cover millions of people, and most surnames belong to very few. This table groups the 2010 surnames by how many people had each one:
| People with the surname | Surnames | Share of all people counted |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 or more | 11 | 5.3% |
| 100,000 to 999,999 | 303 | 22.6% |
| 10,000 to 99,999 | 3,253 | 28.5% |
| 1,000 to 9,999 | 21,322 | 20.9% |
| 100 to 999 | 137,364 | 12.8% |
| fewer than 100 (not listed one by one) | not listed | 9.9% |
Half of everyone counted had one of the 2,116 most common surnames. At the other end, 29,312,001 people had a surname shared by fewer than 100 people in the whole country. The Census groups those together as “all other names” to protect privacy, so if your surname isn’t in the list, it is rarer than any surname that is.
How the Most Common Surnames Changed From 2000 to 2010
The Census Bureau published the same list for 2000, with 151,671 surnames. Between the two counts, the surnames that gained the most people were Hispanic surnames, and several Asian surnames climbed the ranks:
| Surname | Rank, 2000 to 2010 | People, 2000 to 2010 |
|---|---|---|
| Garcia | #8 to #6 | 858,289 to 1,166,120 |
| Hernandez | #15 to #11 | 706,372 to 1,043,281 |
| Nguyen | #57 to #38 | 310,125 to 437,645 |
| Patel | #172 to #95 | 145,066 to 229,973 |
How to Look Up Your Last Name
- Type your surname in the search box on the surnames page. Every one of the 162,253 surnames in the 2010 list has its own page.
- Its page gives the number of people, the rank and the number per 100,000 people, and how the count changed since 2000. Pages for surnames with 1,000 or more people also list the surnames that sound alike.
- If it isn’t listed, fewer than 100 people had it in 2010.
- Try other spellings. As with first names, each spelling is counted separately.
The full list is also on the Census Bureau’s 2010 surnames page. To see how many people share your first name, type it in the search box on the home page. For both names together, the full name estimate combines the two, and the rare last names guide looks at the other end of the list.
What the Census Counts Can’t Tell You
- They date from 2010. The counts describe people counted in the 2010 Census, not today.
- They cover the US only. There is no official worldwide count of surnames; see how many people have your name in the world.
- Surnames under 100 people are grouped. They are counted only as a total.
- Spellings are separate. Two spellings of the same family name appear as two surnames.