What’s the Most Common Surname in Your State? - Note for discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."

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• Enter your last name to learn its meaning and origin.

Most Common Surname by State

State	Last Name
Alabama	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Alaska	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Arizona	Smith	Johnson	Garcia
Arkansas	Smith	Williams	Johnson
California	Garcia	Hernandez	Lopez
Colorado	Smith	Johnson	Martinez
Connecticut	Smith	Johnson	Brown
Delaware	Smith	Johnson	Brown
Florida	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Georgia	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Hawaii	Lee	Wong	Kim
Idaho	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
Illinois	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Indiana	Smith	Miller	Johnson
Iowa	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Kansas	Smith	Johnson	Miller
Kentucky	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Louisiana	Williams	Smith	Johnson
Maine	Smith	Brown	Johnson
Maryland	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Massachusetts	Smith	Johnson	Sullivan
Michigan	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Minnesota	Johnson	Anderson	Nelson
Mississippi	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Missouri	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Montana	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
Nebraska	Johnson	Smith	Miller
Nevada	Smith	Johnson	Garcia
New Hampshire	Smith	Brown	Johnson
New Jersey	Smith	Williams	Johnson
New Mexico	Martinez	Garcia	Chavez
New York	Smith	Williams	Brown
North Carolina	Smith	Williams	Johnson
North Dakota	Johnson	Anderson	Olson
Ohio	Smith	Miller	Johnson
Oklahoma	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Oregon	Smith	Johnson	Miller
Pennsylvania	Smith	Miller	Williams
Rhode Island	Smith	Brown	Johnson
South Carolina	Smith	Williams	Brown
South Dakota	Johnson	Anderson	Smith
Tennessee	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Texas	Garcia	Smith	Martinez
Utah	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
Vermont	Smith	Brown	Johnson
Virginia	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Washington	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
West Virginia	Smith	Miller	Johnson
Wisconsin	Johnson	Smith	Anderson
Wyoming	Smith	Johnson	Miller

Smith, along with Johnson, Miller, Jones, Williams, and Anderson make up most of the most common surnames all across the country.

But there are still regional differences. If you are in the Northwest, you are more likely to come across an Anderson than a Brown, which is slightly more common on the East Coast.

Only the Southwestern portion of the country really has a lot of variety. States like Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona — where there are large Latino populations — boast a variety of names like Garcia, Hernandez, Martinez, and Chavez.

And then there’s Hawaii, whose three most-common surnames — Lee, Wong and Kim — don’t even appear in the top three anywhere else in the country.

And Massachusetts, with its large Irish population, is the only state that has Sullivan in its top three.

If you are looking to explore more about your own last name, you can search for its meaning and origins at ancestry.com/surnames.

—Angel Cohn