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

The most recent statistics we have for these white last names are from the 2010 census.

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

Most common white 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 "White".
3. This is the percentage of people who self-identified as "White".
4. This is our unofficial rank of the last name for people who self-identified as "White".
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 white surnames

If you are white, it is likely that you are of European or Nordic descent, therefore the history of white surnames could also be named the history of European surnames.

These surnames, such as 'Smith', 'Johnson', and 'Williams,' are some of the most popular in the United States.

So just where did these surnames come from? Keep reading to find out.

Where did white surnames come from?

Believe it or not, Europeans were not the first society to invent surnames. Rather it was the Chinese who came up with the practice around the year 1000 BCE. The Europeans did not need surnames at this time as many lived in small villages without a centralized government.

After the feudal era, sometime after 1266 travel became more popular in Europe, as did larger governments, and this required people to adopt surnames in order for the officials to track the taxes people paid when two people had the same name. At the time, surnames were established based on one of four characteristics, patronymic, locative, occupational, or as a nickname.

Patronymic surnames

Patronymic last names are perhaps the easiest to spot and the most famous. This is when an individual took their father's first name as their last which is denoted as adding 'son' to the end of the surname. These are names like 'Johnson' (son of John) 'Williamson' (son of William) and 'Evenson' (son of Even).

In the Nordic countries, they also distinguished between the son and daughter as the surname was established. Surnames, where the daughter took on the father's name, are distinguishable by the suffix 'dottir' added at the end. This is where the name 'Jansdottir' came from, signifying 'Jans daughter.'

While Jansdottir doesn't quite make the list of the top surnames in the United States, these surnames can still frequently be found in communities with Nordic ancestry.

It's also important to note that many surname prefixes came from patronymic origins. For example, in the surname MacDonald, 'Mac' is the Scottish designation for son or daughter so 'MacDonald' means 'son or daughter of Donald.'

The Scottish 'Mac' is the equivalent of the Irish 'O' and is used for the same purpose. Thus a surname like 'O'Brien' really means 'son or daughter of Brien.' The French also used a prefix of their own 'Fitz' as in 'Fitzgerald' or 'Fitzsimons' but this prefix had a much more sinister meaning than those of Scotland and Ireland. 'Fitz' indicated that someone was an illegitimate child therefore 'Fitzsimons' would mean 'illegitimate child of Simons.'

Locative surnames

Of course, when the problem is too many people with the same first name, this can also create a similar problem with too many people with the same last name if a society was only to use patronymic naming. Thus, many medieval individuals also received their surname based on a location.

For example, if your name was John, and you lived near a marsh, you might be John of the Marsh. Or if you lived near a lake, you would be John of the Lake. Over time, however, humans have gotten quite lazy, leading to the dropping of the designation of the location and making the name simply John Marsh or John Lake.

In addition to being named after natural features, some people were also given the name of the city they lived in or came from. This was especially popular with the ruling class. Thus surnames like 'Hastings' and 'York' entered society.

Occupational surnames

After patronymic surnames, the most popular surnames in European culture are those stemming from an occupation. This is where a person was given a surname based on their job at the time. Because historically professions were handed down from generation to generation of a family, this made sense.

Thus, some people were given the last name 'Smith' indicating they were a smith or the last name 'Miller' indicating they were a miller. These occupational last names are some of the most common in the United States today.

Not to mention that these surnames can also be combined with patronymic naming. For example, someone who was the son of a Baker would be given the last name Bakerson as opposed to just Baker. This is also how the name Smithson came to be.

Nicknames

The final category used to create surnames is nicknames. These are surnames like 'Little,' 'Tall,' and 'Red.' Although these names likely preceded the first name at one point, such as Little John or Tall John, somewhere during the course of history they were relocated to after the given name.

How have white surnames changed over time?

In the United States, white surnames have changed the least when compared to other categories such as black surnames or Asian surnames. But this doesn't mean that there haven't been some adjustments however that will make it difficult to trace your lineage.

America was always known as the land of the free, and thus when many immigrants arrived in the country, they saw it as a great time to change their name and start over in life. Therefore it is possible that if your ancestor arrived with a last name like Shepherd, he may have changed it to something else with the desire of starting a new life.

This happened frequently with Irish immigrants as they were highly scrutinized and thought poorly of at the time. So if an Irish man didn't have the tell-tale red hair, he might change his name to something more British sounding in order to have an easier time finding a job. He may also drop the 'Mac' portion of his name turning 'MacDonald' into 'Donald,' 'Donalds,' or even 'Donaldson.'

American's are also responsible for shortening a great many surnames over the years. For example, a name like 'Davis' actually originated from the name 'Davidson.' Somewhere along the line, someone decided 'Davidson' was too long and instead started shortening it to 'Davis.' Davis is one of the most common last names in the US today.

It's also important to remember that not all Europeans who immigrated to the country spoke English. Some spoke French, others Spanish, and some Dutch. Therefore when they entered the country, spelling errors or spelling changes were common in surnames on paperwork. This is likely where the last name 'Cooke' became 'Cook.'

But, if you can trace your surname back to the point where it changed, people with white surnames generally have less of an issue following their ancestry than those with other types of surnames.

Can you guess someone is white based on their surname?

As previously mentioned, America is a huge melting pot. Therefore it is impossible to guess someone's race based on their surname alone. Besides the original European surnames, many white people have Hispanic or Asian surnames although they consider themselves to be white. You can never guess the ethnicity of someone based on their surname alone.

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.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!