The U.S. Census Bureau released on April 14 a set of data tables listing the most common first and last names reported in the 2020 Census.
The new release includes national counts of last names by race and Hispanic origin, first names by race and Hispanic origin, as well as first names by sex. A summary table also compares the most common names across several censuses: those conducted in 1790, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this is the first time since the 1990 Census that data on first names have been provided alongside surnames. The agency explained that for each name listed as “predominantly” associated with a group or category, it means that a majority of people with that name identified with a single race, Hispanic origin or sex category during their census response. For example, “Garcia” is described as a predominantly Hispanic surname because ninety-one percent of people named Garcia identified as Hispanic in their responses.
The data show continuity among many top surnames: eight out of fifteen top last names have remained consistent since the nation’s first census in 1790—Brown, Davis, Johnson, Jones, Miller, Smith, Williams and Wilson are still among the most frequent today. However, there has been notable change over time; since the year 2000 six predominantly Hispanic surnames—Garcia, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Lopez, Martinez and Rodriguez—have joined this group.
The fastest-growing last names between 2010 and 2020 were mostly Asian surnames among those ranked in the top one thousand nationwide—a shift from previous decades reflecting changing immigration patterns. Despite women outnumbering men in the United States population according to recent figures from the census period studied here—the five most common first names were all predominantly male. This suggests greater variety exists among female given names than male ones.
Census officials noted that some popular given names such as Michael or Mary remain strongly associated with one gender while others like Harley or Quinn are nearly evenly split between males and females within their top rankings.
The datasets released do not include information about specific individuals nor do they provide combinations of given name plus surname; only frequencies are shown for privacy reasons. Statistical safeguards have also been implemented to protect respondent confidentiality.
More highlights can be found through America Counts’ story titled “Eight of the Nation’s Top 15 Last Names Stayed the Same Since 1790.” Full datasets along with methodology details are available on census.gov under resources related to genealogy.
