I found this amusing little file from the U.S. Census Bureau. It lists the top 88799 last names in the U.S. (in order of popularity - based on the 1990 census) Warning: file takes a minute or so to load).
So, where do you rank? Steinhardt is at 27,052 (woo-hoo, we’re not last!!)
If you don’t want us to know your actual last name, just tell us what hundred you’re in (300s, 2500s, 49250s, etc.)
And while we’re at it, here is a list of the 4275 most popular female first names and here is a list of the 1219 most popular male first names (Zev is not on the list).
First name is between 100 and 150. I’m very surprised at that, primarily because the only other person I’ve ever met who has the same name as me was about 90.
Wow, my first name is first on the list, and my last name is nowhere on the list. Doesn’t surprise me though, since it was created by the Greek government after WWII.
Wow, I’m number 22 in last names. Rodríguez. And I don’t live in the U.S. of A. That’s funny, that so many latinos pushed the name up. My first name, however, is not on the list.
I also find it interesting that the anglicized spelling (and/or Dutch spelling) of my last name actually ranks higher than the original German spelling (178 compared to 329). Also pretty interesting is that “Nguyen” seems to be by far the highest ranked Asian name. Much higher than any of the Chinese surnames.
The whole thing makes for really interesting reading.
Whoops, I missed “Kim”, just four positions below “Nguyen”. I guess there’s either a lot more Koreans and Vietnamese than Chinese in the States, or the Chinese have more surnames to choose from.
My last name doesn’t make the list, I’m not too surprised because it was an Ellis Island created name. However, I notice that all of my family members’ first names are in the top 15 first names. At first I thought that was boring, and then I realized it makes sense to give your kids a common, familiar first name when they are going to have a lifetime of repeating the spelling of their last name.
