Ancestry digs up top 3 last names in each state. Do they sound familiar?

By Kalin Kipling kkipling@sacbee.com

Updated December 4, 2017 8:15 AM

This photo taken Nov. 9, 2010, shows Emily Goodmann, a doctoral student who is doing her dissertation on the history of the telephone book. Ancestry, with the help of the white pages, researched the most common surnames in each state. Charles Rex Arbogast AP file

An Ancestry study has found the “most common surnames by state.”

With help from the white pages, the popular genealogy site found one last name was most common nationwide: Smith. Other popular surnames include Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones and Miller.

Most popular last names changed depending on region, according to the Houston Chronicle, although Smith was found in all regions, along with Johnson and Williams.

There were two states with all Latino last names in the top three: California and New Mexico. Texas and Arizona also had Latino surnames in the mix.

Hawaii had a unique top three. And Massachusetts’ significant Irish population was represented in one of its top three surnames.

Here’s the breakdown:

State	#1 most common name	#2 most common name	#3 most common name
Alabama	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Alaska	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Arizona	Smith	Johnson	Garcia
Arkansas	Smith	Williams	Johnson
California	Garcia	Hernandez	Lopez
Colorado	Smith	Johnson	Martinez
Connecticut	Smith	Johnson	Brown
Delaware	Smith	Johnson	Brown
Florida	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Georgia	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Hawaii	Lee	Wong	Kim
Idaho	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
Illinois	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Indiana	Smith	Miller	Johnson
Iowa	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Kansas	Smith	Johnson	Miller
Kentucky	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Louisiana	Williams	Smith	Johnson
Maine	Smith	Brown	Johnson
Maryland	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Massachusetts	Smith	Johnson	Sullivan
Michigan	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Minnesota	Johnson	Anderson	Nelson
Mississippi	Smith	Williams	Johnson
Missouri	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Montana	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
Nebraska	Johnson	Smith	Miller
Nevada	Smith	Johnson	Garcia
New Hampshire	Smith	Brown	Johnson
New Jersey	Smith	Williams	Johnson
New Mexico	Martinez	Garcia	Chavez
New York	Smith	Williams	Brown
North Carolina	Smith	Williams	Brown
North Dakota	Johnson	Anderson	Olson
Ohio	Smith	Miller	Johnson
Oklahoma	Smith	Johnson	Williams
Oregon	Smith	Johnson	Miller
Pennsylvania	Smith	Miller	Williams
Rhode Island	Smith	Brown	Johnson
South Carolina	Smith	Williams	Brown
South Dakota	Johnson	Anderson	Smith
Tennessee	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Texas	Garcia	Smith	Martinez
Utah	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
Vermont	Smith	Brown	Johnson
Virginia	Smith	Johnson	Jones
Washington	Smith	Johnson	Anderson
West Virginia	Smith	Miller	Johnson
Wisconsin	Johnson	Smith	Anderson
Wyoming	Smith	Johnson	Miller

This story was originally published December 3, 2017 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Ancestry digs up top 3 last names in each state. Do they sound familiar?."

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