US surnames, 2000
Random last name generator
Every surname on this page comes from the 2000 U.S. Census, which lists 151,671 surnames shared by at least 100 people. The five most common are Smith (2,376,206), Johnson (1,857,160), Williams (1,534,042), Brown (1,380,145), Jones (1,362,755). The generator draws a surname in proportion to how often it appears, so common surnames come up far more often than rare ones. The list used by the generator holds the 10,797 most frequent surnames, which together cover 77% of the surnames in the source file.
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What the data says
- The 10 most common surnames make up 4.9% of the population, about 1 in 21 people.
- 0.88% of the population is Smith, the most common surname in the list.
- Counting every surname in the file equally, the distribution behaves like 12,395 equally common surnames (effective number, exp of Shannon entropy).
- The average surname is 6.3 letters long, weighted by how often it appears.
Top 20 surnames
| # | Surname | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smith | 2,376,206 | 0.88% |
| 2 | Johnson | 1,857,160 | 0.69% |
| 3 | Williams | 1,534,042 | 0.57% |
| 4 | Brown | 1,380,145 | 0.51% |
| 5 | Jones | 1,362,755 | 0.51% |
| 6 | Miller | 1,127,803 | 0.42% |
| 7 | Davis | 1,072,335 | 0.40% |
| 8 | Garcia | 858,289 | 0.32% |
| 9 | Rodriguez | 804,240 | 0.30% |
| 10 | Wilson | 783,051 | 0.29% |
| 11 | Martinez | 775,072 | 0.29% |
| 12 | Anderson | 762,394 | 0.28% |
| 13 | Taylor | 720,370 | 0.27% |
| 14 | Thomas | 710,696 | 0.26% |
| 15 | Hernandez | 706,372 | 0.26% |
| 16 | Moore | 698,671 | 0.26% |
| 17 | Martin | 672,711 | 0.25% |
| 18 | Jackson | 666,125 | 0.25% |
| 19 | Thompson | 644,368 | 0.24% |
| 20 | White | 639,515 | 0.24% |
Questions and answers
What is the most common last name in the United States?
Smith. The 2000 U.S. Census lists 2,376,206 people with this surname, 0.88% of the population.
How much of the list do the 10 most common surnames take up?
About 4.9% of the population, about 1 in 21 people, is one of the 10 most common surnames in the 2000 U.S. Census.
How many different surnames are in the data?
The 2000 U.S. Census lists 151,671 surnames shared by at least 100 people. Those names cover 89.8% of the population; the rest carry rarer surnames.
How long is the average surname?
Weighted by how often each one appears, the average is 6.3 letters.