How common is your last name?

Find out here (US only): http://www.pbs.org/pov/thesweetestsound/popindex.php

#3406 in 2000

This website wouldn't show me the page where you can put a last name in unless I told them what my pbs station is.

In the year2000 around number 26000, out of 150000, more common than I thought!

Smith was #1

You were #52 in the year 2000 Matu

Neither my last name, nor my middle name (our other clan name) exists...I know there are more of us...Does not seem to work for Native Sir Names.


Thanks for sharing it though...

Jay - there was this paragraph near the bottom of the page:

What About Me? According to the 2000 data, though the entire list of 151,671 surnames covers about 90 percent of the population, it accounts for only about 3 percent of surnames in the United States! The 2000 census found over 6 million surnames total, the vast majority (about 65%) held by just one person. So don't be discouraged if you're not on the list. Ninety-seven percent of all surnames in the United States didn't make the list.

I believe you fall into the 97% mentioned above. I have several friends (with Scandinavian last names) that are not found either.

Also - surnames tend to be spelled differently by different people. If you search "whitecloud" (one word) you get:

In 1990, whitecloud was ranked #59158.
In 2000, whitecloud was ranked #128766.

In 1990, Hennon was ranked #33645.
In 2000, Hennon was ranked #37856.

You are the first visitor to this site to enter that name (out of a total of 2386032 name entries).


Hey, I finally came in first at something!

Wow, my name was a lot more common that I thought. Ranked 22116.

In 1990, Badgett was ranked #9475.
In 2000, Badgett was ranked #10283.

#19 here -- no wonder customs always asks me followup questions about apartments and checking accounts...

In 1990, graham was ranked #104.
In 2000, graham was ranked #108.