Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Names Demographics topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Census presenter: 'Smith' still the most common U.S. surname; Hispanic and Asian names rising
Summary
Travis Schumaker of the U.S. Census Bureau said 'Smith' remained the most common surname from the 1790 Census through the 2020 Census, that Hispanic surnames such as Garcia and Rodriguez have entered the top 15, and that the fastest-growing names from 2010–2020 were predominantly Asian (Zhang, Liu, Wong).
Travis Schumaker of the U.S. Census Bureau told listeners that the most common surname in the 2020 Census was Smith and that the same surname also topped the list in the 1790 Census, a span of 230 years during which the nation’s population grew about 84-fold.
Schumaker said the nation’s top 15 last names have “not changed much” since 1790, listing examples such as Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller, Davis and Wilson that have persisted on the list. He added that more recently predominantly Hispanic surnames including Garcia and Rodriguez have joined that top 15.
Between 2010 and 2020, Schumaker said, the fastest-growing last names were predominantly Asian; he cited Zhang, Liu and Wong as examples. He also noted a pattern in given names: women show more variety in first names than men, and eight of the nation’s top 10 most popular first names are traditionally male.
Schumaker encouraged listeners to read his America Counts feature and to visit census.gov for the full data and methodology. “Check out my America Counts story for more Census data on names in the United States,” he said.
The remarks were a high-level summary of naming trends the Census Bureau documented; Schumaker did not present vote counts, policy proposals, or legal interpretations during the brief presentation. For additional details and data tables, the Census Bureau’s published materials and the America Counts piece are the primary sources.
