In this section we'll look at the most popular Asian and Pacific Islander last names in the United States. These names are people who self-identified as "Asian and Pacific Islander" in the Decennial Census survey.

The most recent statistics we have for these Asian and Pacific Islander last names are from the 2010 census.

You can use the links below to view more common Asian and Pacific Islander last names. This page is currently showing names ranked from 1 to 2000.

Most common Asian and Pacific Islander last names: 1-2000 | 2001-4000

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Table key

To help you understand the above table, below is a description of each column and what it represents.

1. This is the total number of occurrences for the name in the latest US Decennial Census survey.
2. This is the total number of people who self-identified as "Asian and Pacific Islander".
3. This is the percentage of people who self-identified as "Asian and Pacific Islander".
4. This is our unofficial rank of the last name for people who self-identified as "Asian and Pacific Islander".
5. This is the official U.S. rank of the last name according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

You can find explanations for each of the table columns below, or use the following links to view more last names for different ancestries.

• White last names
• Black last names
• Hispanic last names
• Asian & Pacific Islander last names
• American Indian & Alaskan Native last names
• Two or more race last names

The history of Asian surnames

Asian has been a race available in the US census data only for the past couple of decades. Prior to the 1950s in fact, the only races available on the US census were Black and White. This led to a wide under-collection of data regarding Asian surnames before this time, as they were generally grouped with white people.

Additionally, Pacific Islanders, who have a completely separate culture and etymology than Asians were grouped all together. This obscured much data about the two cultures which can make it difficult to trace an Asian surname past 1950, and almost impossible to trace a Pacific Islander surname.

Where did Asian surnames come from?

Asians, specifically the Chinese, were the first culture to take on surnames and it happened about 3000 years ago. The emperors of the time noticed the population was increasing rapidly and they needed a more efficient way to keep track of those who were paying their taxes. Thus, they asked every citizen to take their father's first name as their surname.

This is known as a patronymic name. Someone who was named Yichen, but whose father's name was Nguyen, would become Yichen Nguyen.

The Chinese were especially good record keepers, and most surnames can be traced back to 1279 AD without problems. Some surnames can even be traced to historic tales and events as early as 300 BC thanks to the consistency of surnames in Chinese culture.

How Asian surnames have changed over time

Unlike many other cultures, which didn't develop surnames until much later, or changed them frequently, the Chinese have really maintained the core of their surname culture, as it is seen as a respect to their ancestors to carry on the family name.

There have, however, been some changes. Most of which occurred during periods of immigration. When the Chinese began coming to the US in droves through Angel Island, they were required to write their name in the English alphabet rather than the symbols they were used to. This meant they often had to orally sound out their name to a translator as many didn't read or write English.

Names such as 陳 (a common Chinese surname) were seen to be spelled as Chen, Chin, Chan, Chinn, Tan, and even Dan or Ting. This led to a wide divergence of last names in the American-born Chinese.

It is also important to remember that there are several dialects in the Chinese culture alone. Generally, people who speak one dialect, such as Mandarin, cannot speak to those who speak another dialect like Cantonese. This has caused some difficulty in tracing last names as they may have been spelled or said differently as the language diverged.

There is one final problem with tracing an Asian surname, and this is that, throughout history, Asians have listed their surname before their first name as a sign of respect for their family. Thus, someone whose first name was Tong, and last name was Lao, would be Lao Tong in China.

When these immigrants came through Angel Island, they didn't always understand that they needed to switch their name around, thus sometimes they were recorded in reverse. This caused many Chinese first names (which weren't historically surnames in Chinese culture) to become surnames.

The history of Pacific Islander surnames

Now it's time to talk about the second half of this group of names, the Pacific Islanders, who really should be completely separated from the Asian group. When looking at the information behind Pacific Islander surnames, you might find there is surprisingly little. Why is this?

Well, it's actually a bit of an interesting story.

Surnames aren't something inherently present in the cultures of the islands. And because the Pacific Islander culture was basically obsolete in American society for so long, most of the information gathered about this diverse culture has been done only in the past 25 years.

What classifies as a Pacific Islander?

If you aren't even 100% sure what the term Pacific Islander entails, you aren't alone. The term itself is new, only having been used since sometime around the year 2000. Before that, during census collection, Pacific Islanders would have to claim either "other" or "Asian" for their race.

If they claimed other, they would then be asked to write in their race. Because of the number of small islands, this created many small data points which were too small to make a difference in data collection. And some data went basically unrecorded or ended up mixed with data from those of Chinese and Japanese descent.

Therefore the USA combined a few islands together in 2000 to be encompassed under the term Pacific Islander. Currently, the race Pacific Islander refers to anyone who is born in or has ancestry from, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, Tonga, or any other islands located in the Pacific Ocean.

What is the origin of Pacific Islanders?

Many people believe that because Asian and Pacific Islanders are grouped together in census data, that Pacific Islanders are descendants of Japanese and Chinese people. This is simply not true. While the DNA of pacific islanders does have roots in Asia, it has also been mixed with many other cultures over the centuries.

Almost all Pacific Islanders who take a DNA test find not only Asian but also Papau DNA which comes from much further south. Because this mixture happened over 1,000 years ago, most Pacific Islanders get only about half of their DNA from what is traditionally considered Asian (Japan, China, Taiwan, etc).

This has led to a completely different race that looks completely different and has unique customs when compared to Asians.

Do Pacific Islanders have surnames?

Traditionally, Pacific Islanders, such as Hawaiians didn't have surnames. Instead, they have intricate first names which tell someone all they need to know about the person.

The first name of a Hawaiian would be given based on a description and could be changed or added to as the person went through their life and experienced certain events.

For example, Paeke Ale o Kanolu means "He who rides the wave" and would perhaps be given to a child who has a gift with surfing. Later in life, if the child won a competition, such as throwing the tiki, Muahtika, his name would be changed to Paeke Ale o Kanolu Muahtika. But all of this was considered a first name.

Where did Pacific Islander surnames come from?

Pacific Islanders didn't have surnames for a very long time. They simply weren't needed in a culture that was small and where nothing was written down. Until the mid-1800s, everything about the culture was passed orally from generation to generation.

This creates many holes in history, as when things were finally written down, many names were written differently or were a different name entirely based on who was telling the story.

Therefore, when a large number of explorers, Christians mostly, came to the Island of Hawaii in 1800 and began converting people to Christianity, they began giving out surnames as baptismal names. For example, 'Akamu' is a biblical Hawaiian last name meaning 'Adam.' So someone who was named Paeke Ale o Kanolu Muahtika would become Paeke Ale o Kanolu Muahtika Akamu.

As more and more Europeans and Americans started coming to the island, there became a need for surnames that were widely adopted by most Hawaiians by 1850. Those who didn't take a biblical name typically took a patronymic surname, meaning the first name of their father as a last name. This created very long names as you can imagine.

Some, to avoid this, would split their long traditional name and make part of it the first name and part of it the last name. This led to the creation of short last names like 'Aka' (noble) and 'Akamai' (knowledge).

There still weren't good records on Hawaii at the time, and the Hawaiian people didn't see a purpose for surnames because they had gone so long without. Therefore after a generation or two, many Pacific Islanders would change the surname of their family just because they wanted to (and name changing is part of their culture). This makes tracing lineage on islands like Hawaii very difficult.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of last names was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve our data, please contact us.

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