Most Common Last Names in the US

162,253 surnames in the 2010 Census, with changes since 2000

Smith, Johnson and Williams were the most common surnames in the 2010 Census: 2,442,977 people were named Smith, about 1 in 121. The Census Bureau's list has 162,253 surnames, every one held by at least 100 people, covering 265,667,228 people. Another 29,312,001 people had rarer surnames. Just the top 32 surnames cover a tenth of everyone counted.

To see how common your last name is, look it up below, or estimate how many people share a first and last name with the full-name estimate. The guide How Many People Have Your Surname? explains the Census counts.

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By First Letter

The 100 Most Common Surnames

People with each surname in the 2010 Census, and how many that is per 100,000 people.

#	Surname	People	Per 100,000
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
16	Thomas	756,142	256.34
17	Taylor	751,209	254.67
18	Moore	724,374	245.57
19	Jackson	708,099	240.05
20	Martin	702,625	238.19
21	Lee	693,023	234.94
22	Perez	681,645	231.08
23	Thompson	664,644	225.32
24	White	660,491	223.91
25	Harris	624,252	211.63
26	Sanchez	612,752	207.73
27	Clark	562,679	190.75
28	Ramirez	557,423	188.97
29	Lewis	531,781	180.28
30	Robinson	529,821	179.61
31	Walker	523,129	177.34
32	Young	484,447	164.23
33	Allen	482,607	163.61
34	King	465,422	157.78
35	Wright	458,980	155.6
36	Scott	439,530	149
37	Torres	437,813	148.42
38	Nguyen	437,645	148.36
39	Hill	434,827	147.41
40	Flores	433,969	147.12
41	Green	430,182	145.83
42	Adams	427,865	145.05
43	Nelson	424,958	144.06
44	Baker	419,586	142.24
45	Hall	407,076	138
46	Rivera	391,114	132.59
47	Campbell	386,157	130.91
48	Mitchell	384,486	130.34
49	Carter	376,966	127.79
50	Roberts	376,774	127.73
51	Gomez	365,655	123.96
52	Phillips	360,802	122.31
53	Evans	355,593	120.55
54	Turner	348,627	118.19
55	Diaz	347,636	117.85
56	Parker	336,221	113.98
57	Cruz	334,201	113.3
58	Edwards	332,423	112.69
59	Collins	329,770	111.79
60	Reyes	327,904	111.16
61	Stewart	324,957	110.16
62	Morris	318,884	108.1
63	Morales	311,777	105.69
64	Murphy	308,417	104.56
65	Cook	302,589	102.58
66	Rogers	302,261	102.47
67	Gutierrez	293,218	99.4
68	Ortiz	286,899	97.26
69	Morgan	286,280	97.05
70	Cooper	280,791	95.19
71	Peterson	278,297	94.34
72	Bailey	277,845	94.19
73	Reed	277,030	93.92
74	Kelly	267,394	90.65
75	Howard	264,826	89.78
76	Ramos	263,464	89.32
77	Kim	262,352	88.94
78	Cox	261,231	88.56
79	Ward	260,464	88.3
80	Richardson	259,798	88.07
81	Watson	252,579	85.63
82	Brooks	251,663	85.32
83	Chavez	250,898	85.06
84	Wood	250,715	84.99
85	James	249,379	84.54
86	Bennett	247,599	83.94
87	Gray	246,116	83.44
88	Mendoza	242,771	82.3
89	Ruiz	238,234	80.76
90	Hughes	236,271	80.1
91	Price	235,251	79.75
92	Alvarez	233,983	79.32
93	Castillo	230,420	78.11
94	Sanders	230,374	78.1
95	Patel	229,973	77.96
96	Myers	229,895	77.94
97	Long	229,374	77.76
98	Ross	229,368	77.76
99	Foster	227,764	77.21
100	Jimenez	227,118	76.99

Surnames That Grew the Most, 2000 to 2010

Hernandez gained more people than any other surname, going from 706,372 in 2000 to 1,043,281 in 2010. These are the 25 biggest gains in people.

#	Surname	2000	2010
1	Hernandez	706,372	1,043,281
2	Garcia	858,289	1,166,120
3	Rodriguez	804,240	1,094,924
4	Martinez	775,072	1,060,159
5	Lopez	621,536	874,523
6	Gonzalez	597,718	841,025
7	Perez	488,521	681,645
8	Sanchez	441,242	612,752
9	Ramirez	388,987	557,423
10	Nguyen	310,125	437,645
11	Flores	312,615	433,969
12	Torres	325,169	437,813
13	Cruz	231,065	334,201
14	Gomez	263,590	365,655
15	Diaz	251,772	347,636
16	Reyes	232,511	327,904
17	Morales	217,642	311,777
18	Rivera	299,463	391,114
19	Williams	1,534,042	1,625,252
20	Lee	605,860	693,023
21	Patel	145,066	229,973
22	Gutierrez	212,905	293,218
23	Johnson	1,857,160	1,932,812
24	Mendoza	168,567	242,771
25	Ortiz	214,683	286,899

Most Common Surnames by Race and Hispanic Origin

The 10 most common surnames where more than half the people are in each group. Hispanic or Latino people can be of any race; the other groups count people who aren't Hispanic.

White

#	Surname	People
1	Smith	2,442,977
2	Johnson	1,932,812
3	Brown	1,437,026
4	Jones	1,425,470
5	Miller	1,161,437
6	Davis	1,116,357
7	Wilson	801,882
8	Anderson	784,404
9	Thomas	756,142
10	Taylor	751,209

Black

#	Surname	People
1	Jackson	708,099
2	Washington	177,386
3	Banks	105,833
4	Joseph	100,959
5	Charles	61,211
6	Jefferson	55,179
7	Mosley	47,963
8	Gaines	43,821
9	Dorsey	43,631
10	Rivers	38,662

Hispanic or Latino

#	Surname	People
1	Garcia	1,166,120
2	Rodriguez	1,094,924
3	Martinez	1,060,159
4	Hernandez	1,043,281
5	Lopez	874,523
6	Gonzalez	841,025
7	Perez	681,645
8	Sanchez	612,752
9	Ramirez	557,423
10	Torres	437,813

Asian and Pacific Islander

#	Surname	People
1	Nguyen	437,645
2	Kim	262,352
3	Patel	229,973
4	Tran	188,498
5	Chen	169,580
6	Singh	116,749
7	Li	111,786
8	Wong	111,371
9	Le	110,967
10	Wang	109,883

American Indian and Alaska Native

#	Surname	People
1	Locklear	19,716
2	Begay	17,553
3	Yazzie	14,949
4	Oxendine	7,139
5	Benally	5,562
6	Tsosie	5,255
7	Chee	4,973
8	Nez	4,827
9	Charley	4,201
10	Jim	3,544

About the Data

The counts come from the Census Bureau's surname lists from the 2010 and 2000 Censuses. Each list has every surname held by at least 100 people. The lists use the letters A to Z only: names written with a space or a hyphen are joined into one word (Lopez-Garcia is listed as Lopezgarcia), and the Census Bureau notes that the lists include some names with misread or misspelled letters.

The race and Hispanic origin shares are the Census Bureau's too. Hispanic or Latino people can be of any race; the other groups count people who aren't Hispanic and reported one race, or two or more races. The Bureau withholds a share when too few people are in it to publish without risking their privacy, so a surname's shares may not add up to 100%.

Surnames that sound alike are grouped by Soundex, a code that gives names that sound alike the same letter and three digits; it was used to index the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 censuses. It is rough, so a group mixes other spellings of a name (Smith and Smyth) with names that only sound close.

First names have their own pages, from Social Security birth records: browse first names by letter, gender, decade or state.