ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The most popular last names in the U.S might be unchanged from the previous decade, but Asian surnames were the fastest-growing at the start of this decade, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmith,\u201d \u201cJohnson,\u201d \u201cWilliams,\u201d \u201cBrown,” and Jones,\u201d remained the top five last names in the United States in 2020, as they were in 2010, according to a tally from the last U.S. head count. Most of the fastest-growing last names from 2010 to 2020 were Asian, according to the Census Bureau.<\/p>\n
The top three of those were \u201cZhang,\u201d \u201cLiu,\u201d and \u201cWang.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rounding out the top 10 most common last names in 2020 were \u201cGarcia,\u201d \u201cMiller,\u201d \u201cRodriguez,\u201d \u201cDavis,\u201d and \u201cMartinez.\u201d The only change from 2010 was \u201cRodriguez\u201d which jumped ahead of \u201cDavis\u201d for the No. 8 spot.<\/p>\n
The Census Bureau has tallied counts of the most common last names in each once-a-decade head count since the 1990 Census. The 2020 Census was the first since 1990 to provide data on first names, although the Social Security Administration keeps a count of the most popular<\/a> male and female first names for babies each year. <\/p>\n The Census tally showed that the most popular male first names at the start of this decade were \u201cMichael,\u201d \u201cJohn,\u201d \u201cJames,\u201d \u201cDavid,\u201d and \u201cRobert,\u201d while the most common female first names were \u201cMary,\u201d \u201cMaria,\u201d \u201cJennifer,\u201d \u201cElizabeth,\u201d and \u201cPatricia.\u201d<\/p>\n Not too much has changed since 1990. Back then, the most popular male first names were \u201cJames,\u201d \u201cJohn,\u201d \u201cRobert,\u201d \u201cMichael,\u201d and \u201cWilliam.\u201d The most popular female first names were \u201cMary,\u201d \u201cPatricia,\u201d \u201cLinda,\u201d \u201cBarbara,\u201d and \u201cElizabeth.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the Social Security Administration’s count, the Census Bureau’s tally includes everyone, not just newborns.<\/p>\n \u201cThe names people choose are a function of what they are exposed to, so culture certainly plays a role, but so does social influence,\u201d said Jonah Berger, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cPeople are constantly exposed to names of others around them, and that can shape not only which names they like, but also which ones they avoid.\u201d <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n