According to the most recent in public availableU.S. Census datafrom the year 2000 , the five most vulgar last name in the United States are Smith , Johnson , Williams , Brown , and Jones . But what are the regional pas seul ? While the Census Bureau break off out each last name by race and ethnicity , it does n’t provide a numeration by commonwealth . There are other data origin , however . In 2014 Ancestry.comran the numbersfrom their own database , and pile up the top three most vulgar last name by state . With the exception of the southwesterly Department of State and Hawaii , the top few name across the country tended to also dominate the state - specific rankings .
However , another way to uncover regional difference at the state grade is to compute the most distinctive last name by state . Using a methodology interchangeable to the “ Most Distinctive Obituary Euphemismfor ' Died ' in Each State ” map , I calculated the difference between the state and home prevalence of each of the top 250 last name across the country , based on Social Security Administration data . The highest value present the last name that is most distinctive to that province .
By and large , the results are reflective of each state ’s demographics and in-migration story . In New England and Appalachia , Irish and English name dominate ( Walsh , Sullivan , Payne ) . In the Midwest and Mountain States , German and Scandinavian names are common ( Jensen , Snyder , Carlson ) . In California , Florida , and the Southwest , it ’s Latino gens ( Lopez , Hernandez , Gonzalez ) . New York and New Jersey ’s Jewish community also show up ( Cohen , Schwartz , Hoffman ) .
To see the top five names for each state and for more about the method and sources used to create this mapping , visitthis postat SimonKnowz.com .
