# Rarest last name in America **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647 "2013-04-14T00:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/81 "2014-01-21T23:46:16Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > If it’s just “America”, I doubt that’s unique, but “Fishing in America” would be. But if we’re going to allow people who change their name to whatever, then consider Metta World Peace (who Charles Barkley still calls Ron) or various names from [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=519914). I had a roommate whose middle name was America. She was beautiful… ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/82 "2014-01-22T00:00:19Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Years ago I heard of a man named [Xerxes Zzyzzx (with a son named Hero):](http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/48818110/) Hmmm. There is a place called [Zzyzx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx,_California) in Southern California, but it appears to be a word made up by the guy who tried to lay claim to the land. I was not his name or anything like that. I have driven by the sign (on the 15 freeway) to the [road to Zzyzx](http://www.schweich.com/images/1440-11.jpg) a few times. (I didn’t go down it. It is a long way, and there is apparently very little to be seen there.) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/83 "2014-01-22T00:48:24Z")
Kate Winslet is married to some guy named Ned Rocknroll. I’m hoping he’s the only one with that douchetastic last name. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/84 "2014-01-22T01:50:22Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Congratulations! You’re now officially an artifact! 😛 I think what you mean is a [relict.](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/relict) > [@](#): > > : a surviving species of an otherwise extinct group of organisms; also : a remnant of a formerly widespread species that persists in an isolated area 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/85 "2014-01-22T03:26:57Z")
The howmanyofme link says there are “1 or fewer” with my surname in the US. I know of 5. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/86 "2014-01-22T07:14:58Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > One interesting thing is the percentage of people with stereotypically Spanish last names who, according to that census data, are not Hispanic. For example, 7.3 percent of people named Rodriguez and 9.19 percent of people named Garcia denied that they were Hispanic (or a family member who was filling out the form for them denied for them). I was speculating about this. Of these non-Hispanic Garcias, Rodriguezes, etc., how many are: > > 1. Non-Hispanics married to Hispanic men who have taken their husband’s name, the stereotypically example of course being Mrs. Lucy McGillicuddy Ricardo of TV. > 2. Non-Hispanics adopted into a Hispanic family and given that name. > 3. People from a culture that had been conquered by the Spanish at some point and had Spanish names imposed on them but who now identify as non-Hispanic. Do Filipinos commonly consider themselves Hispanic? How about people who claim to be full-blood Aztec? > 4. People who have Hispanic heritage through their patrilineal lineage but who consider that heritage to be too diluted, remote, etc. to be an important part of them other than as a last name source. E.g. “My dad was Hispanic, but barely so. He didn’t speak a word of Spanish and even declined to claim a Hispanic scholarship because he didn’t think he deserved it. His father was somewhat Hispanic - he was born in the US and grew up speaking English but he picked up some Spanish from family members, and his father was very Hispanic and the last one born in a Spanish speaking area. My mother and my father’s mother were both Pennsylvania Dutch on both sides and that’s what I say I am.” > 5. Italians, Portuguese, etc. where the name crossed over at some point, was mistakenly spelled in the Spanish way on an immigration document and was never changed back, etc. > 6. People whose name was changed to a Hispanic one for some reason other than that listed here or descendants of that person. > > The answer is probably all of them and that we can’t really know. Afaik in the US self-identification as Hispanic, White, or Black can’t be overruled as long as the identification was personally held, and possibly not at all. > > On the other hand, 2.5% of Rosensteins are apparently Hispanic. Maybe lots of Puerto Rican girls marrying Brooklyn Jews? My bet would be Argentines… Basques often have similar names to Hispanics, but often do not see themselves as Hispanic, many Basques live in the Great Basin. Many Portuguese and some Italian names are identical to Spanish names. And finally some Spanish-Americans who have been in the U.S. for generations, like Louisiana Spanish settlers, find it odd to indentify as anything other than white/non-Hispanic. I live in a heavily Hispanic area, and its sometimes funny to see the politics of surnames. In know quite a few very Latino people who - for reasons of marriage or a distant Italian/German/Jewish/French/Lebanese ancestor do not have a Spanish name. I know people who have Spanish names by marriage (including Anglo men who find it convenient to borrow the Spanish practice of adding the spouses surname after de, so a Fred Smith becomes Fred Smith de Márquez) or maybe just have a New Mexican “Spanish” great-great grandfather. So it is generally not a good idea to judge a person’s ethnicity by last name…yet, most people will leap to assumptions about another based on the name (a Rodriguez must speak Spanish, be brown, have tamales for Christmas…a Johnson must speak nothing but English, be white/black, have turkey dinner, etc.). I generally see first names as a better indicator of actual ethnicity. Travis Gutierrez is probably going to be culturally Anglo…Jorge Petersen is probably going to know mole from pipián. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/87 "2014-01-22T07:21:28Z")
The great thing about life before Social Security (1936) and civil registration for births in the U.S. (as late as the 1920s) is you could basically spell your last name however you wanted. Or it may appear as what the census taker wanted it to be. I have an French ancestor who was Flecher, then Flitcher, and ultimately Fletcher in the census. One of those is very common, the other two would be rare names. That line left no male heirs, so the surname question went away. If he did have a son, my guess is that the pressure to have the most common surname would win out…and he’d be a Fletcher. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/88 "2014-01-22T08:00:16Z")
> [@susan](#): > > The howmanyofme link says there are “1 or fewer” with my surname in the US. I know of 5. Waitaminnit! You mean that site now acknowledges that there are [less that 117 of any name](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16195007&postcount=46)? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/89 "2014-01-22T08:04:30Z")
I had a dentist once whose name was Dr. DicKard (note the odd capitalization). Anyone seeing that would be inclined to pronounce it DikKARD (accent on second syllable), I very much suspect. I asked him about it. He said it was a corruption of DesCartes. I was like :dubious: about that. I think the name was originally just Dickard, which anyone would likely pronounce DIKerd (accent on first syllable), and he probably just didn’t like that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/90 "2014-01-22T08:37:59Z")
I doubt you can have one single winner for _the_ rarest. There could be several Americans each with the only last name among their countrymen. I know of at least a couple naturalized Thai-Americans with tongue-twister surnames. Must be others from other countries too who have become American. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/91 "2014-01-22T10:01:58Z")
I did some searching on that site. It’ seems 99% of Hillary’s in America are female. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/92 "2014-01-22T15:17:57Z")
Oops! Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/93 "2014-01-22T15:25:32Z")
The “howmanyofme” site doesn’t track frequency of last names below 117 of them, and so will never tell anyone that there’s only 1 person with that last name. However, if you enter _just_ a last name, it’ll assume that that’s your full name, and that you have no first name. It will then tell you that there is at most 1 person with your full name, that is to say, your last name with no first name. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/94 "2014-01-22T15:27:03Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > I did some searching on that site. It’ seems 99% of Hillary’s in America are female. You mean as a first name? I wonder what percentage are 21 or younger, having been named after Mrs. Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/95 "2014-01-22T17:17:30Z")
Why 117? (Actually, it appears to be 118 now.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/96 "2014-01-22T17:35:20Z")
Because they had room in their database for the top X names, and X was high enough to allow for names held by 118 people, but not by 117. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/97 "2014-01-22T22:19:57Z")
158 people in the U.S. with my last name, but I’m the only one with my first and last name combined. More amusingly, if you Google just my last name, in the little preview of images, picture #2 is my Dad, and picture #6 is my brother. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/98 "2014-01-23T04:24:09Z")
I research friends for fun. I had a customer with the last name of Waicukewith. I asked him what nationality was the name and he said Lithuanian. He and an unmarried daughter are all that exist in the US ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/99 "2014-01-23T04:35:33Z")
> [@drew870mitchell](#): > > [How many of me](http://howmanyofme.com/) > > That should help rule out names that people think are rare but aren’t very. I wouldn’t trust it as a proof of absence though. That is, if you look up Bob Wehadababy-Itsaboy there and they say no results, it’s possible he just wasn’t in the database they pulled. Their FAQ says they had to drop about 10% of values that were unique or rare. Not accurate for my husband’s name. It says there’s only one of him in the US with that name but he’s a junior. It says there are two people with my name which I think is true. Though if you put my two formal names together I’m fairly sure I am the only person in the entire country with my name. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2014, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647/100 "2014-01-23T04:40:56Z")
Good to know. I know without looking that I’m the only one with my first+last in the US. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rarest-last-name-in-america/655647.md?page=6)