New Orleans - Mostly French or Cajun French, though, like myself, English names.
Along my road, which follows the Rideau Canal and the Rideau River, the predominant name on the mailboxes is “Kelly”. There’s Kelly the lawyer, Kelly the storekeeper, Kelly the dairy farmer, Kelly the beef farmer . . . and all kinds of dead Kellys in the Kelly’s Landing cemetery.
Since the Rideau Canal was built by Irish navvies, it’s hardly surprising.
There are a lot of German and Czech names here in Central Texas, and a lot of families here who still speak Czech more than a century after their ancestors came here.
Another Yankee (CT) noting the dominance of French-Canadian names in my area.
Boudreau, Beauliau, Chevrette, Tessier, Bouley, Archambault, Michaud, LaFlamme, LaBonte, Gaudette, Desaultels, Rondeau, etc…the list is endless.
In this area the dominant name is rapidly becoming Patel. There are many immigrants from all over Asia but no other name is as common.
I suspect a limited set of surnames in that Indian population is the reason.
For instance,in South Africa, Indians are 2.5% of the national population. But the top 10 most popular surnames are:
Naidoo 0.9579%
Govender 0.7018%
Botha 0.6349%
Pillay 0.6238%
Smith 0.5935%
Pretorius 0.4532%
Fourie 0.4466%
Venter 0.4339%
Nel 0.4291%
Moodley 0.4203%
I’ve bolded the ones that are Indian. That’s 4 out of the top 10, and the two most popular. Nationwide. I suspect it’s the same for most of the the rest of the top 10, they’re all Afrikaner surnames except for Smith, but Afrikaners are only 5% of the population. Meanwhile, the first African surname, Dlamini, only rocks up at number 64.
Growing up in a blue-collar town near Chicago, we had a lot of “-ich” (Slavic) or “-ski” (Polish) and “-ous” (Greek) last names. Now I’m in Eastern Indiana, and the last names seem to be generically English/Scots-Irish with a smattering of German and French. Not too surprising. Lots of Smiths, Burns, Hannigans, Miller/Mueller, etc.
A lot of Williams and Johnson families here. They are very common black family names.
I run a lot of database reports at work. It’s amazing how many pages of employees named Johnson or Williams pop up in sorted reports.
Lots of Sikhs in this area, most of whom have the surname Singh. We also have a lot of Ukrainians and Russians.
I grew up in northeastern TN; there were Leonards everywhere. I’m not sure about the DC suburb I live in now; probably it’s whatever the most common name in El Salvador is, since that’s the most numerous immigrant group.
Atlanta is too big and too diverse for there to be dominant names, but Mrs. SMV and I vacation on Hatteras Island, where the O’Neals, Burruses, Gaskins and Garrishes are all over the local history. And best of all, still around - we rent houses from Midgett Realty, a name that occurs repeatedly in the list of Cape Hatteras lighthouse keepers, the US Life Saving Service, and the the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Midgett - named for one of the 150 Midgetts who’ve served or are serving in the USCG.
Is that book available on Amazon? My grandfather grew up in a Czech community in Cleveland, and later lived in Lakewood. He changed his Bohemian name to Baker, but there are still people with his original name in Cleveland, and they’re almost certainly relatives. I’d love to read more about his community.
The last time I thoroughly checked the phone books around here (1989), Smith was the #1 name in Manhattan, Williams in Brooklyn, Rodriguez in the Bronx, and Lee in Queens. When I finally got hold of a Staten Island directory a few years later, Smith was tops there too. Also in Jersey City (1989 again), with Patel in second place.
I’m surprised Staten Island wasn’t something Italian.
According to the Salvadoran census (link to secondhand source, in Spanish), it would be Hernández, with most of the runner-ups being other Spanish patronymics: Martínez, López, García, Pérez, Flores (the only non-patronymic, it means Flowers), Rodríguez, Ramírez, González and Vásquez.
I was hoping it would be. It would have made them more interesting, whereas now I’m tempted to just leave them out.
Dont know but as in every small town America, everyone is frickin related to each other
I could just name all the stupid street names and there you have the names
A few:
Neff
Rasmussen
Moore
Hardy