The 100 most common names in America

Every figure below is a count of people enumerated in the 2020 Census — not a survey, not an estimate. The demographic columns say who bears a name today. They say nothing about where the name came from.

The names are less evenly shared than the ranking suggests

A national top-100 list flattens something the underlying columns make obvious: most common American surnames are not common across all of America. 95.4% of the people called NGUYEN reported their origin as Asian or Pacific Islander; for CHEN it is 95.4%, and for GONZALEZ, 94.4% Hispanic or Latino. A name can sit in the national top hundred while being almost unknown outside one community.

The opposite is rarer and more interesting. LEE is the most evenly divided name in the top hundred — its largest single group accounts for only 43.9% of the 695,657 people who carry it. That is not a coincidence of spelling: LEE is simultaneously a common Anglo surname and a common romanisation of surnames from several East Asian languages, and the Census counts both as the same string. WILLIAMS (46.2%) and ROBINSON (46.8%) are close behind, for a different reason — both are long-established names carried by descendants of enslaved people and by descendants of the families who held them.

Group figures are counts of people who reported each origin on their census form. Disclosure avoidance perturbs small cells, and a handful come back very slightly negative in the published file; those are shown as zero here. Rows do not always sum to the total for the same reason.

Top 100 last names

#NamePeopleWho bears itLargest group
#1 Smith 2,369,644 White 68%
#2 Johnson 1,858,234 White 56.8%
#3 Williams 1,561,395 Black 46.2%
#4 Brown 1,386,083 White 55.4%
#5 Jones 1,383,250 White 53.1%
#6 Garcia 1,149,510 Hispanic or Latino 91.2%
#7 Miller 1,129,186 White 81.5%
#8 Rodriguez 1,085,838 Hispanic or Latino 93%
#9 Davis 1,074,448 White 59.6%
#10 Martinez 1,039,848 Hispanic or Latino 92.1%
#11 Hernandez 1,013,895 Hispanic or Latino 94.1%
#12 Lopez 878,958 Hispanic or Latino 92.3%
#13 Gonzalez 828,405 Hispanic or Latino 94.4%
#14 Wilson 777,275 White 64.5%
#15 Anderson 756,560 White 72.6%
#16 Thomas 734,345 White 49.7%
#17 Taylor 723,758 White 62.7%
#18 Moore 696,384 White 63.8%
#19 Lee 695,657 Asian or Pacific Islander 43.9%
#20 Jackson 686,937 Black 51.2%
#21 Perez 680,712 Hispanic or Latino 92.2%
#22 Martin 678,691 White 71.8%
#23 Thompson 640,099 White 67.1%
#24 White 636,798 White 63%
#25 Sanchez 607,848 Hispanic or Latino 92.4%
#26 Harris 603,371 White 49.2%
#27 Ramirez 544,204 Hispanic or Latino 93.6%
#28 Clark 539,661 White 72%
#29 Nguyen 531,404 Asian or Pacific Islander 95.4%
#30 Lewis 515,459 White 55.7%
#31 Robinson 510,138 White 46.8%
#32 Walker 504,833 White 56.3%
#33 Hall 470,080 White 69.8%
#34 Young 468,920 White 63.7%
#35 Allen 465,583 White 64.8%
#36 King 453,539 White 67.5%
#37 Wright 443,210 White 63.1%
#38 Torres 435,998 Hispanic or Latino 91.4%
#39 Flores 426,965 Hispanic or Latino 91%
#40 Scott 421,499 White 57.7%
#41 Hill 419,076 White 62%
#42 Green 415,664 White 54.5%
#43 Adams 413,470 White 71.1%
#44 Nelson 410,801 White 75%
#45 Baker 401,148 White 76.9%
#46 Rivera 398,449 Hispanic or Latino 90.2%
#47 Mitchell 372,104 White 58.4%
#48 Campbell 370,555 White 70.7%
#49 Gomez 368,213 Hispanic or Latino 92%
#50 Carter 364,355 White 55.7%
#51 Roberts 362,049 White 74.2%
#52 Diaz 356,910 Hispanic or Latino 91.9%
#53 Phillips 343,656 White 73.5%
#54 Evans 343,493 White 65.7%
#55 Cruz 342,580 Hispanic or Latino 86.4%
#56 Reyes 335,828 Hispanic or Latino 87.7%
#57 Turner 333,512 White 61.9%
#58 Parker 323,880 White 66.4%
#59 Edwards 320,927 White 59.5%
#60 Collins 317,373 White 68.8%
#61 Stewart 311,429 White 66.4%
#62 Morales 310,866 Hispanic or Latino 92.4%
#63 Patel 309,327 Asian or Pacific Islander 93.8%
#64 Morris 307,446 White 70.3%
#65 Murphy 298,047 White 80.5%
#66 Cook 290,386 White 78.9%
#67 Rogers 289,242 White 72.3%
#68 Ortiz 288,277 Hispanic or Latino 92.3%
#69 Morgan 276,366 White 72.7%
#70 Gutierrez 275,216 Hispanic or Latino 92.4%
#71 Kim 274,068 Asian or Pacific Islander 93.8%
#72 Cooper 271,453 White 65.2%
#73 Bailey 269,092 White 69.4%
#74 Ramos 268,640 Hispanic or Latino 85.9%
#75 Reed 268,584 White 68.5%
#76 Bell 267,025 White 58.9%
#77 Peterson 265,150 White 81.9%
#78 Doe 262,774 White 52.7%
#79 Ward 255,767 White 72.5%
#80 Kelly 255,516 White 75.6%
#81 Howard 253,434 White 61.7%
#82 Cox 249,872 White 79.4%
#83 Richardson 249,840 White 57.5%
#84 Chavez 244,201 Hispanic or Latino 92.1%
#85 Brooks 244,116 White 57.7%
#86 James 243,502 White 48.4%
#87 Watson 242,956 White 63.3%
#88 Mendoza 242,772 Hispanic or Latino 88.6%
#89 Gray 241,208 White 65.9%
#90 Bennett 239,397 White 73.3%
#91 Wood 238,948 White 85.6%
#92 Ruiz 237,286 Hispanic or Latino 92.2%
#93 Chen 233,798 Asian or Pacific Islander 95.4%
#94 Castillo 231,347 Hispanic or Latino 89.4%
#95 Alvarez 229,446 Hispanic or Latino 91.7%
#96 Hughes 226,912 White 75.5%
#97 Price 225,734 White 71.1%
#98 Jimenez 225,722 Hispanic or Latino 93.1%
#99 Ross 224,952 White 66%
#100 Long 223,485 White 76.6%

Top 100 first names

The final column is the recorded male share. It describes how the name was reported, not what the name "is" — several of these sit near the middle.

#NamePeopleWho bears itLargest groupSex
#1 Michael 3,476,715 White 79% Male
#2 John 3,125,114 White 82.9% Male
#3 James 2,996,420 White 82% Male
#4 David 2,813,019 White 76.4% Male
#5 Robert 2,759,332 White 82.7% Male
#6 William 2,240,112 White 83.3% Male
#7 Mary 1,768,337 White 81.1% Female
#8 Maria 1,652,964 Hispanic or Latino 81.3% Female
#9 Daniel 1,607,193 White 67.1% Male
#10 Joseph 1,600,664 White 76.8% Male
#11 Richard 1,575,998 White 82.3% Male
#12 Thomas 1,506,604 White 87% Male
#13 Christopher 1,499,874 White 71.5% Male
#14 Jennifer 1,331,080 White 77.4% Female
#15 Matthew 1,315,148 White 81.1% Male
#16 Jose 1,211,107 Hispanic or Latino 96% Male
#17 Charles 1,207,975 White 79.5% Male
#18 Elizabeth 1,206,652 White 73.8% Female
#19 Patricia 1,189,827 White 77.6% Female
#20 Linda 1,164,879 White 82.5% Female
#21 Mark 1,135,543 White 85% Male
#22 Andrew 1,075,510 White 76% Male
#23 Anthony 1,075,182 White 54.1% Male
#24 Kevin 1,015,224 White 68% Male
#25 Brian 1,011,015 White 80.1% Male
#26 Susan 979,773 White 91.5% Female
#27 Steven 972,806 White 80.9% Male
#28 Jessica 957,450 White 67.3% Female
#29 Barbara 943,005 White 84.4% Female
#30 Joshua 939,718 White 68.4% Male
#31 Paul 907,227 White 82.3% Male
#32 Jason 898,646 White 75.6% Male
#33 Karen 882,585 White 81.6% Female
#34 Ryan 874,270 White 80% 98% male
#35 Sarah 874,127 White 81% Female
#36 Lisa 864,251 White 81% Female
#37 Jacob 805,737 White 74.9% Male
#38 Timothy 802,955 White 84.2% Male
#39 Sandra 780,837 White 69% Female
#40 Nancy 772,570 White 81.1% Female
#41 Eric 767,093 White 66.7% Male
#42 Michelle 757,102 White 68.4% Female
#43 Kenneth 755,676 White 77.5% Male
#44 Emily 755,529 White 75.6% Female
#45 Ashley 752,328 White 66.1% Female
#46 Jeffrey 735,424 White 86.9% Male
#47 Jonathan 717,216 White 59.7% Male
#48 Donald 715,630 White 86.4% Male
#49 Nicholas 711,310 White 77.5% Male
#50 Amanda 698,992 White 79.7% Female
#51 Kimberly 696,172 White 72.7% Female
#52 Ronald 689,835 White 80.3% Male
#53 Laura 679,854 White 74.3% Female
#54 Melissa 675,225 White 73.9% Female
#55 Justin 668,566 White 71% Male
#56 Stephen 665,593 White 86.5% Male
#57 Stephanie 657,761 White 66.2% Female
#58 Gary 656,596 White 87.5% Male
#59 Scott 655,955 White 93.2% Male
#60 Juan 655,686 Hispanic or Latino 96.3% Male
#61 Rebecca 645,355 White 82.7% Female
#62 Brandon 642,617 White 62% Male
#63 Donna 635,056 White 87.9% Female
#64 George 631,917 White 73% Male
#65 Amy 625,124 White 84.1% Female
#66 Deborah 622,212 White 83.5% Female
#67 Edward 616,125 White 73.2% Male
#68 Carol 614,461 White 88.8% Female
#69 Benjamin 606,324 White 73.9% Male
#70 Angela 600,156 White 63.7% Female
#71 Cynthia 597,777 White 69.5% Female
#72 Sharon 583,753 White 79.3% Female
#73 Samuel 566,084 White 62.5% Male
#74 Alexander 556,753 White 59.4% Male
#75 Patrick 551,886 White 81.2% Male
#76 Margaret 549,715 White 86% Female
#77 Kathleen 547,317 White 92.7% Female
#78 Nicole 544,074 White 70% Female
#79 Tyler 541,533 White 80.6% 97% male
#80 Brenda 521,401 White 64.9% Female
#81 Samantha 517,507 White 69% Female
#82 Anna 512,952 White 74.8% Female
#83 Larry 512,453 White 77% Male
#84 Gregory 503,955 White 77.5% Male
#85 Kelly 499,226 White 85.6% 12% male
#86 Emma 498,216 White 71.7% Female
#87 Adam 496,298 White 80.9% Male
#88 Pamela 495,984 White 80.5% Female
#89 Aaron 494,243 White 63% Male
#90 Rachel 493,720 White 78.1% Female
#91 Luis 489,967 Hispanic or Latino 96.2% Male
#92 Christine 482,604 White 80.6% Female
#93 Nathan 481,630 White 72.2% Male
#94 Heather 473,466 White 90.2% Female
#95 Carlos 473,059 Hispanic or Latino 89.7% Male
#96 Katherine 470,579 White 79.2% Female
#97 Julie 467,486 White 85.9% Female
#98 Debra 465,855 White 84.8% Female
#99 Peter 464,400 White 80.9% Male
#100 Victoria 452,655 White 55.3% Female

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Names in the 2020 Census (Top 1000 tables). Group figures count people who reported each origin. They describe who bears a name today, not where the name came from.