The most common surname in the United States is...Smith. No. 2 may surprise you. It's not Jones. The second most common last name is Johnson, according to Namestatistics.com.
Surnames of English origins fall into just four types, according to Wikipedia:
Occupations (such as Smith, Baker, Archer)
Personal characteristics (such as Short, Brown, Whitehead)
Places and geographical features (such as Scott, Hill, Rivers, Windsor)
Ancestry (such as Richardson, Johnson or James)
Namestatistics.com identifies these as the top 20 most common last names:
- Smith
- Johnson
- Williams
- Jones
- Brown
- Davis
- Miller
- Wilson
- Moore
- Taylor
- Anderson
- Thomas
- Jackson
- White
- Harris
- Martin
- Thompson
- Garcia
- Martinez
- Robinson
The most common first names for men:
- James
- John
- Robert
- Michael
- William
- David
- Richard
- Charles
- Joseph
- Thomas
The most common first names for women:
- Mary
- Patricia
- Linda
- Barbara
- Elizabeth
- Jennifer
- Maria
- Susan
- Margaret
- Dorothy
Dorothy? Are they serious? What about Jessica, Sarah, Rachel, or Meghan. Those are all WAY more common than Dorothy, Barbara, or Linda?
ReplyDeleteI guess the older population are the main consumers of those monickers, thus skewing the statistics.
Does anyone out there know any Dorothy's?
I do know a Dorothy younger than 50, but I also know a Doris, Loretta, and a Gertrude, too.
ReplyDeleteI think that's what it is. There are a lot of baby boomers and older folks named Dorothy, Barbara, and Linda.
In 30 years, that list will have Brittany, Kayla and Jessica on top, I'm sure.
My sister is named Dorothy (and is 45) I am a Linda. (39) Guess we are of that "older population" now...sighz...LOL
ReplyDeleteOh and as for the boy names-My brother is a Michael-so guess we round out the top 10 nicely in my family.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think Dorothy and Linda are wonderful names. Michael too.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have kids, my main rule in naming them is coming up with something my mother can pronunce and spell. :-)
I've thought about naming my daughter Gladys if I have one. I think that's a great name, though there's almost no one named that anymore.
People will continue to contrive new names for their kids, some of which will consist of wrighting old names with new by adding suffixes, until 'Henry' appears phenomenal because it's so rooted in early 20th century gold-rush tradition.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my school-mates, back in the day, had independently determined that each one's first-born male would be named 'Henry'.
As it turned out, each was able to name a 'Henry,' notably within a short time of the other, and guess which turned out to be the most popular name in the baby name book that year?
Like you, I concede that this list is probably dated, as evidenced by your experiences with first names, often which are hyphenations of everything prior: mykalea, andrea, kaitlyn, ellie...........
Let's pound out my son's classroom roster: Summi, Enrique, Sydney, Levi, Amber, Kenton, Tyler, Olachi, Prakosh, Makda, Zachary, Forouk, Chloe and Marissa...............
My parents, ever determined to make Smith uber-interesting, decided on the mispelling of Bryan, invented the mispronunciation of Megan, contrived the mispelling of Reid and the introduced the idea of Heather (back when 'rugged tundrashrub' could no more have defined all the flakey california ditzes who would eventually carry this moniker than could 'henry' appropriately name my son's best friend from vietnam).
And, like it's been stated, I think the census data is whacked, because none of this seems particularly accurate.......
'rugged tundrashrub.' You just solved a mystery for me. You seem like the definition of Heather but not the application, which, as you said, leans towards the ditzy.
ReplyDeleteI want to name a kid Henry as well. A kid named Hank would hopefully be trustworthy and straight-shooting with his friends. It'a a name with old-school integrity.
My grandparents named their kids as follows (notice the trendiness of midcentury America creeping in as time went on)
Dad's side: Willie, Joe, Claude (my dad), Albert, Daniel, William, Delores, John, Glenn and Virginia.
Yes, I am awre that Willie and William are the same name, but my grandparents weren't.
Mom's side: Georgia, Lottie, Barbie, Flora, Hellen, Lucy (my mom), Sam, Elsie, Mearl, Elvis, Jeremiah
Two of Mom's brothers were named after popular singers: Mearl (Merle Travis) and Elvis (you know who). Two of Mom's sisters changed their names. Lottie goes by Darlene (a modification of her middle name, Dolly) and Barbie morphed into Barbara.