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 release includes national-level 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 is also available comparing the most common names from the censuses of 1790, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it has provided counts of the most common surnames since the 1990 Census. The latest release marks the first time since then that data on first names are included. The term “predominantly” is used where a majority with a given name identified with a single race, Hispanic origin or sex category; for example, “Garcia” is considered predominantly Hispanic because “91% of the people named Garcia chose Hispanic in their response to the 2020 Census.”
Eight surnames—Brown, Davis, Johnson, Jones, Miller, Smith, Williams and Wilson—have remained among the top fifteen since the nation’s first census in 1790. The main change over time in this group has been an increase in predominantly Hispanic last names: Garcia, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Lopez, Martinez and Rodriguez have joined this list since 2000.
Between 2010 and 2020 all but one of the fastest-growing surnames among those ranked in the top thousand were predominantly Asian—a shift from earlier decades which reflects changes in immigration patterns.
Despite women outnumbering men nationwide in 2020,”the top five most common first names were all predominantly male,” indicating greater variety among female given names than male ones. Some popular unisex names such as Harley, Emerson and Quinn showed nearly equal probabilities for being assigned to males or females.
The files released include only frequencies for individual first or last names; they do not contain information about specific individuals or combinations of given name plus surname. Statistical safeguards are used to protect confidentiality.
