Surname statistics reveal both persistence and change. The 2020 U.S. Census counted millions of people in a small number of highly frequent surname bands, while millions of other surnames appeared fewer than 100 times. The same census also shows that surname concentration varies substantially among population groups. In Spain, the National Statistics Institute recorded García as the most frequent surname among residents on 1 January 2025.
Contents
- U.S. surname frequency in 2020
- How concentrated surname use was
- Names with strong population-group concentration
- Fastest-growing U.S. surnames
- The long history of leading U.S. surnames
- The most frequent surnames in Spain
U.S. surname frequency in 2020
The 2020 U.S. Census grouped surnames by how often they occurred. The distribution has a steep long tail: a handful of names were exceptionally common, while 7.6 million names occurred fewer than 100 times. The Census report, Last Name Data From the 2020 Census, supplies the following counts for the frequency bands.
| Surname frequency band | Number of surnames | People with surnames in band |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 or more | 11 | 15,051,331 |
| 100,000–999,999 | 299 | 65,386,440 |
| 10,000–99,999 | 3,184 | 81,939,610 |
| 1,000–9,999 | 22,634 | 61,614,356 |
| 100–999 | 133,370 | 38,589,433 |
| 1–99 | 7,609,574 | 36,317,061 |
The smallest-frequency band contained 7,609,574 surnames and 36,317,061 people. That contrast matters for family-history research: a surname can be rare in the national data while still belonging to a substantial number of people, or it can be common enough to appear in the highest bands and still require location and date clues to identify a particular family line.
The next band, 100 to 999 occurrences, contained 133,370 surnames and 38,589,433 people. Moving upward, 22,634 surnames occurred between 1,000 and 9,999 times, representing 61,614,356 people. The 10,000–99,999 band was much smaller by name count, with 3,184 surnames, but it covered 81,939,610 people.
At the upper end, 299 surnames fell between 100,000 and 999,999 occurrences and covered 65,386,440 people. Only 11 surnames reached at least 1,000,000 occurrences, yet those names still represented 15,051,331 people. Taken together, the bands show why “common” and “rare” are relative descriptions: the number of distinct surnames and the number of people carrying them do not move in parallel.
Source: Last Name Data From the 2020 Census, U.S. Census Bureau, 2020.
How concentrated surname use was
The Census also measured how many surnames account for large shares of population groups. Across the total U.S. population in 2020, the ten most frequent surnames covered 4.7% of people. It took 258 surnames to cover one-quarter of the total population.
The comparable figures varied by population group:
| Population group | Share covered by 10 most frequent surnames | Surnames covering one-quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Total U.S. population | 4.7% | 258 |
| White alone | 4.4% | 334 |
| Black alone | 12.2% | 50 |
| American Indian and Alaska Native alone | 6.3% | 160 |
| Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone | 12.9% | 45 |
| Two or More Races | 6.1% | 192 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 14.2% | 35 |
The White-alone population had the broadest distribution among the listed groups by this measure: 334 surnames covered one-quarter of the population, and the ten most frequent names covered 4.4%. By contrast, 35 surnames covered one-quarter of the Hispanic-or-Latino population, while the ten most frequent covered 14.2%.
The Black-alone population reached one-quarter with 50 surnames, and its ten most frequent surnames covered 12.2%. For the Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-alone population, 45 surnames covered one-quarter and the ten most frequent covered 12.9%. The American Indian and Alaska Native-alone population required 160 surnames to reach one-quarter, with the top ten covering 6.3%. The Two-or-More-Races population required 192 surnames, with the top ten covering 6.1%.
These measurements describe surname concentration within the population categories used in the 2020 Census. They do not identify an individual’s ancestry by themselves; they show how frequently surnames were distributed among people classified in each group at that census.
Source: Last Name Data From the 2020 Census, U.S. Census Bureau, 2020.
Names with strong population-group concentration
The 2020 Census report also identified surnames with especially strong concentration in selected population categories. Among the names listed for non-Hispanic White alone, Yoder ranked 508th nationally, with 64,632 occurrences; 96.7% of people with that surname identified as non-Hispanic White alone. Friedman ranked 898th with 38,252 occurrences and a 94.0% share. Schwartz ranked 344th with 88,948 occurrences and a 93.7% share, while Weiss ranked 588th with 55,845 occurrences and a 93.0% share.
Several listed names showed strong concentration in the non-Hispanic Black or African American alone category. Pierre ranked 876th nationally with 39,005 occurrences, and 86.2% of people with the surname identified in that category. Washington ranked 148th with 172,075 occurrences and an 83.6% share. Jefferson ranked 615th with 53,646 occurrences, and 71.6% identified as non-Hispanic Black or African American alone.
The listed surnames with the strongest concentration in the non-Hispanic Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander alone category were Xiong, Zheng, and Zhu. Xiong ranked 750th nationally with 45,183 occurrences, and 97.3% of people with that surname identified in the category. Zheng ranked 781st with 43,117 occurrences and a 97.1% share. Zhu ranked 966th with 35,639 occurrences and a 96.6% share.
National rank and concentration are separate measures. Washington, for example, had more occurrences and a higher national rank than the other Black-concentrated examples listed here, while Zhu had fewer occurrences and a lower national rank than Xiong or Zheng but still had a very high category share.
Source: Last Name Data From the 2020 Census, U.S. Census Bureau, 2020.
Fastest-growing U.S. surnames
The Census comparison from 2010 to 2020 shows substantial reported increases for several surnames. Zhang rose from 70,125 occurrences in 2010 to 122,053 in 2020, a reported 74.1% increase. Liu rose from 78,370 to 127,257, or 62.4%. Wang increased from 109,883 to 169,987, or 54.7%.
| Surname | 2010 occurrences | 2020 occurrences | Reported increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhang | 70,125 | 122,053 | 74.1% |
| Liu | 78,370 | 127,257 | 62.4% |
| Wang | 109,883 | 169,987 | 54.7% |
| Ahmed | 48,319 | 74,458 | 54.1% |
| Kaur | 48,753 | 75,046 | 53.9% |
| Li | 111,786 | 165,790 | 48.3% |
| Lin | 79,508 | 116,776 | 46.9% |
| Ali | 60,002 | 84,529 | 40.9% |
| Singh | 116,749 | 163,612 | 40.1% |
| Chen | 169,580 | 233,798 | 37.9% |
| Wu | 71,721 | 97,527 | 36.0% |
| Huang | 72,328 | 98,330 | 36.0% |
Chen had the largest 2020 count among the names in this comparison, at 233,798, despite its reported increase being lower than Zhang’s. Huang and Wu had the same reported increase, 36.0%, but Huang’s 2020 count was 98,330 compared with Wu’s 97,527. These are reported 2010–2020 changes in occurrences; they are not forecasts of future surname growth.
Source: Last Name Data From the 2020 Census, U.S. Census Bureau, 2010–2020 comparison.
The long history of leading U.S. surnames
Smith held rank 1 in every listed census year from 1790 through 2020: 1790, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Eight of the U.S. top 15 surnames appeared in the top 15 in all five listed years. This gives the highest ranks a notable degree of continuity across the historical comparison, even as individual names moved within the list.
The 2020 top five were Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. The same five names occupied the top five in 2000 and 2010. Garcia rose from rank 8 in 2000 to rank 6 in 2020. Rodriguez moved into rank 8 in 2020, while Davis moved down one place when Rodriguez entered eighth place.
The Hispanic concentration of leading names also changed in the comparison. Ten of the U.S. top 50 surnames were at least 90% Hispanic in 2000. In 2020, 13 of the top 50 were at least 90% Hispanic. The report’s historical ranking comparison therefore combines long-standing names at the top with movement among other leading surnames.
The historical figures use the listed census years rather than an uninterrupted annual series. They should be read as comparisons between those measurement points, and the report’s legacy historical facts are presented here as reported in the Census source.
Source: Last Name Data From the 2020 Census, U.S. Census Bureau, 1790–2020 listed-year comparison.
The most frequent surnames in Spain
Spain’s National Statistics Institute recorded the following most frequent surnames among residents as of 1 January 2025. García was first, recorded for 1,446,937 residents. Rodríguez was second with 939,214, followed by González with 930,137.
| Rank | Surname | Residents | Measurement date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | García | 1,446,937 | 1 January 2025 |
| 2 | Rodríguez | 939,214 | 1 January 2025 |
| 3 | González | 930,137 | 1 January 2025 |
| 4 | Fernández | 896,725 | 1 January 2025 |
| 5 | López | 871,380 | 1 January 2025 |
| 6 | Martínez | 832,396 | 1 January 2025 |
| 7 | Sánchez | 818,287 | 1 January 2025 |
| 8 | Pérez | 779,313 | 1 January 2025 |
| 9 | Gómez | 496,272 | 1 January 2025 |
| 10 | Martín | 475,139 | 1 January 2025 |
The first eight names each had at least 779,313 residents recorded with the surname. Gómez and Martín were also among the ten most frequent, with 496,272 and 475,139 residents respectively. The Spain figures are a resident count measured on a specific date, while the U.S. figures above come from census surname occurrences and listed census-year comparisons; the two sets should not be treated as a single directly comparable series.
Source: APELLIDOS 2025 más frecuentes de los residentes en España, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, as of 1 January 2025.