Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones. You probably know at least one person with one of these last names. And that’s because they've topped the list of the most common last names in America for decades and, according to the newest Census data, they still do. But if you look past the top five, it gets a lot more interesting.
The same names, still on top
The U.S. Census Bureau's latest data on last names just confirmed something that hasn't really changed in over 200 years: America's most common last names barely move. Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones have held the top five spots since at least 2010, and most of them have been fixtures since the very first census in 1790. With 7.8 million unique last names floating around the country, that kind of staying power says a lot.
The names climbing the fastest
While the top names are staying put, a totally different set of last names is climbing fast behind them, and the list looks nothing like it used to. Over the past decade, the fastest-growing last names in the country have mostly been Asian, with Zhang leading the pack. In just 10 years, the number of people with the last name Zhang grew by nearly 75 percent in the United States.
Before that, in the early 2000s, Hispanic surnames were driving most of the growth. Several of those names, including Garcia, Rodriguez, Martinez, Hernandez, Lopez, and Gonzalez, continue to round out the top 15.
What's behind the shift
The short answer is immigration. Asian Americans have been the fastest-growing group in the country for a while, now making up around 7 percent of the population, and the last name data clearly reflect that shift. In Hawaii, it's especially obvious: the three most common last names in the state are all Asian.
The bigger picture
Every last name carries a little bit of history. Smith, García, and Nguyen each tell a different story about migration, family, and how the country has changed over time. Since the Census only tracks this once a decade, this new batch of data is a rare, up-to-date snapshot of who's actually living in America right now.
