Surname Rarity Checker
See how rare your last name is, using the U.S. Census 2010 surname file.
Last names, by the numbers
Surnames follow their own math. This checker uses the U.S. Census Bureau 2010 surname file, which counts 266 million people across 162,253 last names. Type yours to see how many Americans share it and where it ranks nationally.
The common end
Smith is the most common American surname, shared by more than 2.4 million people, followed by Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. If your last name is one of these, expect a Very Common tier. Most family names are far less common, and plenty are carried by only a few hundred people.
First name or last name
The rarity idea is the same for both: how many people share it, turned into a "1 in X" figure and a tier. The data source is what changes. First names come from 145 years of birth records, while surnames come from the 2010 census snapshot of the living population.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the rarest last name?
- The Census file lists surnames shared by at least 100 people, so the rarest entries are carried by only about 100 Americans. Names below that threshold are grouped together and not listed individually to protect privacy.
- Why is the surname data from 2010?
- The 2010 surname file is the most recent complete, public breakdown the Census Bureau has released. It is a reliable snapshot of how common each surname is across the whole country.