Can you name the Top 20 Surnames (U.S.)?

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Top 20 Surnames (U.S.) Quiz

Rating:	Report a mistake
Published: September 9th, 2008
Category: Language
Plays: 202,417

Tags: rank, surname, top, Top 20

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	mokos:	Sep 18th, 2008 at 03:36 GMT	15 points
	Need more time on this one. Good quiz, but some time to think would have been nice.

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	ntnon:	Dec 21st, 2008 at 22:36 GMT	16 points
	Surname is your family/last name. Will SMITH, Johnny DEPP, Kelly HU, Michael JORDAN, etc., etc.

	archicello:	Feb 23rd, 2009 at 04:48 GMT	4 points
	difficult! fun :D

	hscer:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 16:58 GMT	3 points
	Oh, yeah, Hispanics live in the United States. I missed all of those names.

	samila:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 17:17 GMT	8 points
	I think it is a wonderful tribute to how far the U.S. has come when you have names like Garcia, Rodriguez, Martinez and Hernandez on this list. Go USA. Although it didn't help with this quiz. I missed the easy ones.

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	lazeeeyes:	Apr 20th, 2009 at 20:04 GMT	10 points
	Here in California, those Garcias, Rodriguez and so forth would be a little higher on the list. Maybe even a few Nguyens (Vietnamese) and a few Kims (Korean).

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	Ecto2:	Jun 16th, 2009 at 21:43 GMT	12 points
	typing in martinez gives you martin! what a bonus

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	NightOwl:	Jul 2nd, 2009 at 23:54 GMT	8 points
	It's surprising that the names are all English or Hispanic. One would think that there would be one or two Irish or Italian surnames in there, considering how many Americans have those nationalities somewhere in their heritage,

	thatsmeijb:	Jul 6th, 2009 at 23:44 GMT	2 points
	good quiz very hard

	buppyspek:	Jul 14th, 2009 at 18:26 GMT	-2 points
	I could swear I typed in both Garcia and Rodriguez, but for some reason they didn't take. Maybe I spelled them wrong? I failed at this quiz, anyway.

	DrRichie:	Aug 27th, 2009 at 13:30 GMT	1 point
	I went with Martinez, and got given Martin. I then didn't go back to Martinez and missed it! Amazed how similar this is to the UK list still.

	ricestillfumbled:	Sep 30th, 2009 at 03:38 GMT	4 points
	i only got 6...i could have gotten so many more if i just thought about it

	adamnvillani:	Oct 17th, 2009 at 07:08 GMT	6 points
	I have an Italian last name, and one time I looked at the big list of 1,000 top names, and there were very few Italian names on the list. But think about it, how many Italian names would you really say are "common" in the U.S.? Hardly any. If you see an Italian name, your recognize it as Italian just by how it looks, not because you've known a lot of other Italians with the same name. There are a lot of Italian-American celebrities but hardly any of them share a last name.

	recklessness:	Oct 29th, 2009 at 08:31 GMT	5 points
	I´ve read somewhere that Nguyen is already in the top 50.

	rgc19:	Apr 21st, 2010 at 21:35 GMT	-1 points
	Most people with English last names are quick to claim some other ethnicity... most Americans claim German ancestry, second most Irish. (english third I think)

	PirateBaller24:	May 23rd, 2010 at 18:29 GMT	2 points
	I'm happy my last name is on here, but I thought it was unique oh well

	yoshigod9753:	Jun 9th, 2010 at 20:17 GMT	2 points
	All i could think of was Bob Smith. Also some names are famous last names like Zachary TAYLOR or Gordon BROWN.

	tbwilson:	Sep 3rd, 2010 at 19:10 GMT	5 points
	@NightOwl - A lot of Irish Americans have English last names due to the long history between Ireland and England. After that, we have to take African Americans and Native Americans into account, most of whom have English last names as well. Finally, we have Americans of other non-Anglo-Saxon ancestry who themselves or their ancestors changed their last names. Many of the Millers on the list are apparently people of German descent whose families changed their name after WWI... Miller is a very common name here in Lancaster County, PA, which was heavily German-settled in colonial times. Martin is also a common last name found in Germany and France (albeit with different pronunciations), so that explains its prevalence.

	TJL:	Sep 18th, 2010 at 05:51 GMT	1 point
	Smith seems to be an Irish name pretty often, in spite of the fact that it's originally English. Surprised Murphy isn't on here, though

	TJL:	Sep 18th, 2010 at 05:52 GMT	1 point
	Come to think of it, Martin and some of the others can be Irish, too

	myitbos:	Sep 23rd, 2010 at 20:52 GMT	1 point
	what i find surprising is finding both Thomas and Thompson on here.

	MoneyGrip:	Sep 26th, 2010 at 06:41 GMT	2 points
	If this were just for New Jersey, it would have Russo and/or Romano and then probably something from the Murphy/Kelly/Sullivan family.

	bsthomas93:	Oct 16th, 2010 at 02:43 GMT	3 points
	hahaha this is really funny being from Minnesota where everyone's last name is Peterson, Petersen, Olson, Olsen, Larson, Larsen, Hanson, Hansen, Anderson, Andersen.........

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	carolineh:	Nov 23rd, 2010 at 20:20 GMT	3 points
	The source given was US CENSUS data...as such, it's pretty unlikely that illegal immigrants' names were included in this, since most of them would be reluctant to fill out something that would identify them to the government.

	WCRoentgen:	Dec 12th, 2010 at 12:00 GMT	-3 points
	Please don't vote me down for the advert: but (here goes): If you want to try a related quiz and test your knowledge of the most common ancestry of selected U.S. counties, please try my quiz: http://www.sporcle.com/games/WCRoentgen/ancestry_US_counties. Thanks.

	cj62392:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 10:17 GMT	-1 points
	I refuse to believe that there are more people named rodriguez than murphy in this country.