Did you ever wonder what the most popular family names are in your state? Do you think these names will be similar across all the states? In this post MyNameStats.com presents the top 20 most popular last names for each of the fifty states and one district. Click or tap on your state on the interactive map below to see its top 20 list. The colors on the map show the most popular family name for each state. There are only four names Smith, Johnson, Garcia and Lee.
Most Popular Family Name by State
">Top 20 Last Names by State
The table above shows the top 20 most popular names for the state and the estimated number of people with that name in the state, click on the names to see the detailed statistics for that name.
How many family names appear on these lists?
There are 118 unique family names on these top 20 lists. Only three appear on all fifty one lists. Those are Smith, Johnson and Brown. Most names appear just once, and it is this diversity that makes this map interesting. What one notices when exploring the different lists is that not only do the names change from state to state, they also reflect the historical, ethnic and cultural makeup of the state.
Here are some examples of this:
- In Hawaii, nine out of the twenty names appear exclusively on the Hawaiian list, this includes names such as Chun, Higa and Yamamoto. These family names clearly reflect the Asian and Pacific Islander community that populates the state.
- On Louisiana's top 20 list names of Acadian heritage appear, like Landry, Broussard, Guidry and Fontenot.
- In Minnesota twelve of the twenty names end in "son" or "sen" likely the result of the Scandinavian families that immigrated to the region in the late 19th and early 20th century. Names on the list include Anderson, Peterson and Hansen.
- Wisconsin is heavily weighted in German names such as Schmidt, Schultz, Krueger and Mueller.
- New Mexico's list is dominated by Hispanic Origin names, sixteen out of twenty to be exact. Names such as Chavez, Sanchez and Trujillo.
Smith is the most popular.
Despite all the diversity, the name Smith remains popular across the country. It takes the number one spot in 39 states, it appears in the top 20 lists of all fifty states and one district, and its lowest ranking, nineth, occurs in North Dakota. Nationally it ranks number 1, with an estimated population of 2,6M Americans that share the family name.
We encourage you to take some time to explore the map and its top 20 lists. You can click or tap on the names in the list to see more detailed statistics about the name's popularity and ethnicity.