The U.S. Census Bureau released on April 14 a series of data tables showing the most common first and last names reported in the 2020 Census.
The new data provide insight into naming patterns across the United States, offering national-level counts of last names by race and Hispanic origin, first names by race and Hispanic origin, and first names by sex. The release also includes a summary table comparing the most common names in the censuses of 1790, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.
According to the Census Bureau, it has produced counts of the most common surnames in each census since 1990. However, this is the first time since then that data on first names have been included as well. The term “predominantly” is used where a majority of people with a listed name identified with one race or category; for example, “Garcia” is described as a predominantly Hispanic last name because “91% of the people named Garcia chose Hispanic in their response to the 2020 Census.”
Eight last names—Brown, Davis, Johnson, Jones, Miller, Smith, Williams and Wilson—have remained among the top fifteen since America’s first census in 1790. Since 2000 there has been an increase in predominantly Hispanic surnames among these top fifteen: Garcia, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Lopez, Martinez and Rodriguez have joined this group over recent decades. Between 2010 and 2020 all but one of the fastest-growing surnames among those ranked within the top thousand were predominantly Asian—a shift from earlier periods which had fewer Asian surnames among fast growers.
The report also found that while women outnumbered men nationally in 2020 population figures,”the top five most common first names were all predominantly male,” suggesting greater variety among female given names than male ones. Names such as Michael or John are almost entirely male; Mary or Jennifer are almost entirely female; but some like Harley or Quinn are nearly evenly split between genders.
No information about specific individuals or combinations of first and last name appears in these files—the datasets only show frequency counts—and statistical safeguards protect respondent confidentiality according to officials. Full datasets along with methodology details can be accessed through census.gov.
