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 release provides national-level counts of last names by race and Hispanic origin, first names by race and Hispanic origin, and first names by sex. It also includes a summary table comparing the most common names in the censuses from 1790, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.
This marks the first time since the 1990 Census that data on first names has been included alongside surname information. The agency said it has produced counts of the most common surnames for each census since 1990.
According to the bureau’s highlights, eight of the top fifteen last names—Brown, Davis, Johnson, Jones, Miller, Smith, Williams and Wilson—have remained in that group since the nation’s first census in 1790. A notable change over time is that six predominantly Hispanic surnames—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 the top thousand were predominantly Asian; between 2000 and 2010 only eleven Asian surnames appeared among fastest growers. This trend reflects shifts in immigration patterns over recent decades.
The bureau also noted that although women outnumbered men nationally in 2020 “the top five most common first names were all predominantly male,” suggesting greater variety among female given names than male ones. Most top-ranked given names were strongly associated with either males (such as Michael or John) or females (such as Mary or Jennifer), but some—including Harley, Emerson and Quinn—were nearly evenly split between sexes.
No information about specific individuals or combinations of first and last name is included in these files; only frequency counts are provided. The agency said it uses statistical safeguards to protect respondent confidentiality.
Full datasets as well as methodology can be accessed through census.gov’s webpage dedicated to name data.
