Smith is the most common last name in the United States, shared by 2,369,644 people in the 2020 Census, or 792.8 of every 100,000 residents. Johnson follows with 1,858,234 and Williams with 1,561,395, and together the ten most common last names cover 4.7 percent of the population.
The table and rankings below use the Census Bureau’s 2020 count, published in April 2026, with each name’s 2010 and 2000 rank shown beside it. The same ten names held the top ten in 2010, and the first five have been Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones, in that order, since 2000.
Top 15 Most Common Last Names in the US by 2020 Census Count
| # | Surname | 2020 count | Per 100,000 | 2010 rank | 2000 rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smith | 2,369,644 | 792.8 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Johnson | 1,858,234 | 621.7 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Williams | 1,561,395 | 522.4 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Brown | 1,386,083 | 463.7 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | Jones | 1,383,250 | 462.8 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Garcia | 1,149,510 | 384.6 | 6 | 8 |
| 7 | Miller | 1,129,186 | 377.8 | 7 | 6 |
| 8 | Rodriguez | 1,085,838 | 363.3 | 9 | 9 |
| 9 | Davis | 1,074,448 | 359.5 | 8 | 7 |
| 10 | Martinez | 1,039,848 | 347.9 | 10 | 11 |
| 11 | Hernandez | 1,013,895 | 339.2 | 11 | 15 |
| 12 | Lopez | 878,958 | 294.1 | 12 | 21 |
| 13 | Gonzalez | 828,405 | 277.2 | 13 | 23 |
| 14 | Wilson | 777,275 | 260.0 | 14 | 10 |
| 15 | Anderson | 756,560 | 253.1 | 15 | 12 |
The 10 Most Common Last Names in the US
Each entry gives the 2020 count, the share per 100,000 people, the ranks in 2010 and 2000, the split by race and Hispanic origin, and the origin of the name. Hispanic means Hispanic or Latino of any race. The other groups are non-Hispanic and single-race, except the two or more races group, and the percentages are computed from the Bureau’s counts for each name.
1. Smith: Number One in Every Release
2020 count: 2,369,644 · Per 100,000: 792.8 · 2010 rank: 1 · 2000 rank: 1
Smith has led every Census Bureau surname release, from the 1790 tabulation to 2020. The 2010 count was 2,442,977, so the name lost 73,333 people in a decade, and the 2000 count was 2,376,206. The name is occupational, from the Old English smith, meaning metalworker or blacksmith.
About 68.0 percent of Smiths are White, 22.6 percent Black, 4.4 percent two or more races, 3.5 percent Hispanic, 0.8 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander. That is 1,611,236 White and 535,967 Black Smiths.
2. Johnson: Back to Its 2000 Level
2020 count: 1,858,234 · Per 100,000: 621.7 · 2010 rank: 2 · 2000 rank: 2
Johnson has been second in all three censuses. Its count of 1,858,234 is almost the same as the 1,857,160 recorded in 2000, after a rise to 1,932,812 in 2010. The name is a patronymic, meaning son of John.
About 56.8 percent are White, 33.6 percent Black, 4.7 percent two or more races, 3.3 percent Hispanic, 0.9 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander. The 623,699 Black Johnsons are the second-largest group of Black people sharing a top-ten name.
3. Williams: More Black Than White
2020 count: 1,561,395 · Per 100,000: 522.4 · 2010 rank: 3 · 2000 rank: 3
Williams holds third place for the third census in a row, with 1,561,395 people against 1,625,252 in 2010 and 1,534,042 in 2000. It is a patronymic meaning son of William.
It is the only top-ten name where Black people outnumber White people: about 46.2 percent are Black (721,683) and 43.8 percent White (684,271). The rest are 5.1 percent two or more races, 3.5 percent Hispanic, 0.8 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.6 percent Asian or Pacific Islander.
4. Brown: A Nickname for Hair or Skin
2020 count: 1,386,083 · Per 100,000: 463.7 · 2010 rank: 4 · 2000 rank: 4
Brown has 1,386,083 people, a fall from 1,437,026 in 2010 and a small rise on the 1,380,145 of 2000. It started as a nickname for a person with brown hair or skin, so it is descriptive and neither a patronymic nor an occupation.
About 55.4 percent are White, 34.7 percent Black, 4.8 percent two or more races, 3.5 percent Hispanic, 0.8 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander. Brown leads Jones by only 2,833 people.
5. Jones: The Leading Name in Wales
2020 count: 1,383,250 · Per 100,000: 462.8 · 2010 rank: 5 · 2000 rank: 5
Jones counts 1,383,250 people, down 42,220 from 2010 and up from 1,362,755 in 2000. It comes from Jon, a medieval variant of John, and it is the most common surname in Wales.
About 53.1 percent are White and 37.2 percent Black, which is 514,871 people. The remainder is 4.9 percent two or more races, 3.3 percent Hispanic, 0.9 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.6 percent Asian or Pacific Islander.
6. Garcia: The Top Hispanic Surname
2020 count: 1,149,510 · Per 100,000: 384.6 · 2010 rank: 6 · 2000 rank: 8
Garcia is the highest-ranked Hispanic surname, and it climbed from eighth in 2000 to sixth in 2010 and 2020. Its count grew 33.9 percent over the two decades, from 858,289 to 1,149,510, though it slipped from 1,166,120 in 2010. It is a patronymic from a given name that was very common in early medieval Iberia.
About 91.2 percent of Garcias are Hispanic, which is 1,048,319 people. The rest are 5.7 percent White, 1.6 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, 0.5 percent Black, 0.5 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.4 percent two or more races.
7. Miller: The Most White Name in the Top Ten
2020 count: 1,129,186 · Per 100,000: 377.8 · 2010 rank: 7 · 2000 rank: 6
Miller has 1,129,186 people and dropped from sixth to seventh when Garcia climbed past it. The name is occupational, for a person who owned or worked in a grain mill, from the Middle English mille.
About 81.5 percent of Millers are White, the highest share among the ten, which is 919,905 people. Another 10.5 percent are Black, 3.7 percent two or more races, 3.1 percent Hispanic, 0.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander and 0.6 percent American Indian or Alaska Native.
8. Rodriguez: Up a Place Since 2010
2020 count: 1,085,838 · Per 100,000: 363.3 · 2010 rank: 9 · 2000 rank: 9
Rodriguez moved from ninth to eighth in 2020 by passing Davis. Its count fell by 9,086 since 2010, the smallest drop in the top ten, and it is 35.0 percent above the 804,240 of 2000. The name means son of Rodrigo.
About 93.0 percent are Hispanic (1,010,137 people), 5.1 percent White, 0.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, 0.6 percent Black, 0.3 percent two or more races and 0.2 percent American Indian or Alaska Native.
9. Davis: Down From Seventh to Ninth
2020 count: 1,074,448 · Per 100,000: 359.5 · 2010 rank: 8 · 2000 rank: 7
Davis lost a place in each census. Its 1,074,448 people are barely more than the 1,072,335 of 2000, after a high of 1,116,357 in 2010. It is a patronymic meaning son of David, though a Welsh origin tied to Dyfed has also been proposed.
About 59.6 percent are White, 30.8 percent Black, 4.7 percent two or more races, 3.4 percent Hispanic, 0.8 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.6 percent Asian or Pacific Islander.
10. Martinez: The Newest Name in the Top Ten
2020 count: 1,039,848 · Per 100,000: 347.9 · 2010 rank: 10 · 2000 rank: 11
Martinez entered the top ten in 2010 and replaced Wilson, who was tenth in 2000 and is 14th now. Its count is 1,039,848, up 34.2 percent from 775,072 in 2000 and 25,953 ahead of eleventh-placed Hernandez. It began as a patronymic meaning son of Martin.
About 92.1 percent are Hispanic, which is 958,125 people. The rest are 5.6 percent White, 0.7 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, 0.6 percent Black, 0.6 percent American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.4 percent two or more races.
How the Top 10 Changed Between 2000 and 2020
Only one name has changed in the top ten across the three censuses. Wilson was tenth in 2000 and is 14th in 2020, while Martinez rose from 11th to 10th. Garcia moved from eighth to sixth, and Rodriguez and Davis traded the eighth and ninth places in 2020.
Lower down, Spanish surnames moved the most. Hernandez rose from 15th in 2000 to 11th, Lopez from 21st to 12th and Gonzalez from 23rd to 13th. In 2020 eleven names were reported more than a million times, Smith through Hernandez, against eleven in 2010 and seven in 2000. Three of the top ten, Garcia, Rodriguez and Martinez, are Spanish patronymics. For how widely the language is spoken, see the most spoken languages in the world ranking.
Race and Hispanic Origin Splits Behind the Biggest Surnames
A surname is often tied to one group. In 2020 Garcia, Rodriguez, Martinez, Hernandez, Lopez and Gonzalez were each more than 90 percent Hispanic, and 13 of the top 50 names reached that level. Lee, ranked 19th, is 43.9 percent Asian or Pacific Islander (305,384 people) and 33.2 percent White, because it is both an English name and a Korean one. Jackson, 20th, is 51.2 percent Black.
Some names are nearly uniform. Among the top 1,000, Yoder is 96.7 percent White, Pierre is 86.2 percent Black, Xiong is 97.3 percent Asian or Pacific Islander and Barajas is 95.7 percent Hispanic. The top ten names cover 14.2 percent of Hispanic people, 12.9 percent of Asian or Pacific Islander people, 12.2 percent of Black people and 4.4 percent of White people. Only 35 last names cover a quarter of the Hispanic population, against 334 for White people.
Why Immigration Has Not Thinned Out the Most Common Last Names
Arrivals from Asia and Latin America might be expected to spread surnames around, yet the top ten share fell only from 4.9 percent in 2010 to 4.7 percent in 2020. It takes 258 names to cover a quarter of the population, against 239 in 2010. Hispanic and Asian populations have less varied surnames than the national average, so immigration has not reduced concentration.
The fastest-growing names in the top 1,000 are almost all predominantly Asian or Pacific Islander. Zhang rose from 70,125 to 122,053 between 2010 and 2020, Liu from 78,370 to 127,257 and Wang from 109,883 to 169,987. Ahmed grew from 48,319 to 74,458 and Kaur from 48,753 to 75,046. Coverage was lower in 2020, so the true growth is probably higher. To see where population is growing, the fastest-growing cities in the US are a good place to start.
What the Census Name Counts Measure and Where They Blur
The figures count people whose last name was recorded in the 2020 Census names tabulation, which covers 156,621 names reported at least 100 times. These people are 299 million, or 90.2 percent of the 2020 population, against 95.5 percent in 2010, so part of any drop since 2010 reflects the lower coverage. Editing removed punctuation, spaces and suffixes such as Jr and III, so SMITH and SMITH III count as one name.
The 2020 counts include privacy noise, which has a 95 percent chance of moving each name and group cell by no more than two people, so they are not exact tallies. The race and Hispanic origin percentages are computed by dividing each group’s count by the name’s total, and they describe who shares a name, not where it came from. The Census Bureau does not publish meanings, so the origins come from Behind the Name and Wikipedia. A patronymic, a name formed from a father’s given name, is the most common type in the top ten.
How to Compare Surname Counts Across Census Years
Start with rank, then check the count per 100,000, because the population grew and a name can lose people yet hold its share. Gaps of a few thousand matter at this scale: Brown leads Jones by 2,833 people, which is larger than the noise but far smaller than the swings between censuses. The 2000 file groups Pacific Islander with two or more races, so this article shows 2000 only as rank and count.
Counts are people, not households or families, and a shared name does not mean a shared ancestry. For the full dataset, the Census Bureau’s 2020 names page has the files. The top ten names add up to 14,037,436 people, while the wider most populous countries ranking shows where the United States sits among nations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common last name in the US?
Smith, with 2,369,644 people in the 2020 Census, or 792.8 per 100,000. That is down from 2,442,977 in 2010, but Smith is still about 511,000 people ahead of Johnson.
What percentage of Americans have one of the top 10 last names?
4.7 percent in the 2020 Census, against 4.9 percent in 2010. The ten names add up to 14,037,436 people.
What is the most common Hispanic last name?
Garcia, sixth overall with 1,149,510 people in 2020. About 91.2 percent of them are Hispanic, as are 93.0 percent of Rodriguez and 92.1 percent of Martinez.
Has the Census Bureau released last-name data since 2010?
Yes. The Census Bureau published last-name data from the 2020 Census in April 2026.
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