Last Names For Genealogy

We have so much great information about last names across our website. This page makes it easy to find what you need.

You’ll find origins, meanings, and statistics for most names in the United States. We’ve organized the names in different ways.

The general overview of the more common names is broken down by alphabet. Each article has sections for:

Origins and meanings of the most common names
Famous people with these names
Organized lists of less common names with plenty of origins and meanings

Here is the article index by first letter:

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	Y	Z

Rare Last Names

Are you looking for the rarest surnames? We’ve got you covered with these overviews:

over a thousand rarest last names in the U.S.
Names that are nearly extinct

We’ve also got more detailed lists of rare names and their origins. These are broken down by alphabet:

Checking Your Own (Or Anyone Else’s) Last Name

We created an awesome one-click took that lets you check any name against the recent American census records.

Take the surname ranking tool for a spin right now!

But that isn’t the only tool available for you. We’ve got an overview in our guide on checking how rare your last name is.

Short Last Names

Check out our overview of one-letter last names. You may be surprised at which letters were most likely to be used as a single letter surname.

Interested in two-letter, three-letter, or four-letter last names?

We’ve got lists, meanings, and origins of the shortest names in our articles by alphabet:

A	B	C	D
E	F	G	H
I	J	K	L
M	N	O	P
Q	R	S	T
U	V	W	X
Y	Z

Hispanic Surnames

The U.S. census of 2010 allowed people to declare whether they were Hispanic.

Our articles on Hispanic last names are broken down by alphabet. You’ll find some fascinating historic origins and meanings in each article.

Here is the index of Hispanic surnames:

A	B	C	D
E	F	G	H-J
L	M	N-O	P
Q-R	S	T	U
V	Y

Black Last Names

The U.S. census of 2010 allowed people to declare whether they were Black.

Our articles on black and African American last names are broken down by alphabet. We also combed 19^th and early 20^th-century census records for fascinating insights.

Here is the index of black surnames:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G
H	I	J	K	L	M	N
O	P	Q	R	S	T	U
V	W	Y	Z

Irish And Irish American Last Names

We used the Irish census records combined with U.S. census records to analyze names of Irish origins.

We’ve got the Gaelic meanings for many of these names. We’ve also got some videos with pronunciation guides!

Here is the index (this is a work in progress):

A	B	C	D	E
F	G	H	I	J
K	L		N
P	Q