The U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday that the headline U.S. surname list looked similar across the first decade of this century, even as patterns beneath the top of the ranking shifted. The agency reported that the five most popular last names in 2020—Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones—matched the top five in 2010, according to the Census Bureau’s once-a-decade count that follows the U.S. head count. But the Bureau also said that Asian surnames were the fastest-growing in the early part of the decade.
The Census Bureau’s tally showed that several of the fastest-growing last names over the 2010-to-2020 period had Asian origins. The top three among those faster risers were Zhang, Liu and Wang, the Bureau said. The report also described Asian Americans as the fastest-growing of the country’s largest racial or ethnic groups, and it said Asians now make up 7% of the U.S. population.
Census Bureau data also put the changes in context of what the agency collects and how often. The Bureau has tallied the most common last names in each once-a-decade head count since 1990. It said the 2020 census was the first since 1990 to provide data on first names, while the Social Security Administration separately tracks the most popular male and female first names each year for babies.
On why immigration can affect naming patterns, Paul Ong, a public affairs professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed to the role of immigrants and the next generation. “Much of the growth of the Asian population has been driven by immigrants and their children,” Ong said Tuesday. “Consequently, when Asians crack the top surname rank will be pushed further into the future.”
Other researchers in the story pointed to broader social patterns that shape which names people use beyond population growth. Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the names people choose are tied to exposure and social influence. “The names people choose are a function of what they are exposed to, so culture certainly plays a role, but so does social influence,” Berger said Tuesday. “People are constantly exposed to names of others around them, and that can shape not only which names they like, but also which ones they avoid.”
The Census Bureau’s report included comparisons to the Social Security Administration’s first-name rankings, which rely on baby-name data rather than a count of the population across age groups. The Census Bureau said that difference helped explain why the two agencies’ top first-name lists looked different at the start of the decade. The Census Bureau said its 2020 head-count data showed the most popular male first names as Michael, John, James, David and Robert, while the most common female first names were Mary, Maria, Jennifer, Elizabeth and Patricia.
Michelle Napierski-Prancl, a sociologist at Russell Sage College in New York, said the Social Security Administration’s method differs because it counts only newborns, while the census count captures people across age groups. “So you have generations that were likely named Mary or John and follow more traditional family naming patterns or religious naming patterns,” Napierski-Prancl said Tuesday.
The Census Bureau also said there were 7.8 million unique last names in the U.S., and that Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones were still the top five last names in 2020. It said the only change in the top 10 compared with 2010 was Rodriguez, which jumped ahead of Davis for the No. 8 spot.