Are you looking for a comprehensive list of last names beginning with “U”?
We’ve used the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census to compile 82 surnames that start with the letter U and have at least one thousand bearers of the name.
In the table below, you’ll see the total number of bearers for the name in each census.
Wait – I Know A Surname That Isn’t On This List!
If you don’t find a name that you’re interested in, then it likely didn’t have 1,000 people of that name recorded in both U.S. censuses.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. We have a separate article on figuring out if a last name is rare or common.
We also have an easy-to-use tool that ranks any surname in the United States. It has a much lower threshold of one hundred bearers.
Meanings Of Popular Last Names Starting With U
Here are the top ten most common last names beginning with U in the 2010 U.S. census.
They are in descending order of how common they are.
| Surname | Bearers | Origins | Meaning |
| Underwood | 57,064 | English | Lives beneath a wood on a hill |
| Uribe | 24,612 | Basque | Lives at the lower end of a village |
| Urban | 20,058 | Across Europe | Lives in a town |
| Ulrich | 16,668 | Germanic | Wealthy person of power |
| Urbina | 15,055 | Hispanic | Lives by a confluence of rivers |
| Unger | 14,738 | Germanic | Comes from Hungary |
| Upton | 13,769 | English | Comes from a place with that name |
| Ulloa | 13,133 | Hispanic | Comes from a place with that name |
| Urena | 11,066 | Hispanic | Comes from a place with that name |
| Upchurch | 9,922 | English | Comes from a place with that name |
The meanings given above are short summaries. Some names have several meanings depending on the region. We give more details later in this article.
Last Names Starting With U
Let’s start with names from Uber to Ullery.
Uddin is the most common name in this section with over five thousand bearers in the 2010 U.S. census.
This is an Arabic name. The meaning comes from the words for “of the Religion”.
Many of the names here are of Germanic origins. Uhl has similar numbers to Uddin and is a variant of Ulrich.
The meaning of Ulrich comes from the Germanic words for personal wealth and for power. It spread in the Middle Ages due to reverence for a tenth-century Bishop of Augsburg who became a saint.
| Last Name | 2000 Census | 2010 Census |
| Uber | 1,363 | 1,301 |
| Uchida | 1,193 | 1,156 |
| Uddin | 2,944 | 5,639 |
| Udell | 1,538 | 1,645 |
| Uecker | 1,540 | 1,771 |
| Ugalde | 2,593 | 3,789 |
| Ugarte | 2,415 | 3,272 |
| Uhl | 5,309 | 5,244 |
| Uhler | 1,605 | 1,631 |
| Uhlig | 1,231 | 1,221 |
| Uhrich | 1,299 | 1,328 |
| Uhrig | 1,341 | 1,339 |
| Ulbrich | 1,015 | 1,079 |
| Ulery | 1,581 | 1,695 |
| Ulibarri | 2,924 | 3,013 |
| Ullah | 1,327 | 1,974 |
| Ullery | 1,271 | 1,251 |
From Ullman to Umstead
Ulrich is the most common name in this section and we explained the origins in the previous section.
Ulloa has similar numbers in the census. This is of Spanish origins.
There are several places in Spain with the name. Early bearers came from these areas.
| Last Name | 2000 Census | 2010 Census |
| Ullman | 3,115 | 3,213 |
| Ulloa | 9,097 | 13,133 |
| Ullom | 1,491 | 1,603 |
| Ullrich | 3,626 | 3,592 |
| Ulm | 1,582 | 1,658 |
| Ulman | 1,358 | 1,349 |
| Ulmer | 8,051 | 8,165 |
| Ulrey | 1,178 | 1,183 |
| Ulrich | 16,575 | 16,668 |
| Um | 1,190 | 1,607 |
| Umana | 3,947 | 6,426 |
| Umanzor | 1,871 | 3,432 |
| Umberger | 2,255 | 2,235 |
| Umphrey | 1,078 | 1,120 |
| Umstead | 1,931 | 1,949 |
From Underhill to Uranga
Underwood is the most common name in this section with about fifty-seven thousand bearers in the 2010 census.
The name is of English origin and it pretty much describes what it means. The early bearers lived at the bottom of a tree-covered hill.
Unger is less common but still had over fourteen thousand bearers in 2010. This is a Germanic name that was given as a nickname to people from Hungary.
Upton has nearly the same numbers as Unger, but the name comes from a different region.
It is an English name and there are plenty of places through the country that are called Upton. The meaning comes from the Old English words for upper (upp) and settlement (tun).
Early bearers came from any of these villages and towns.
| Last Name | 2000 Census | 2010 Census |
| Underhill | 6,747 | 6,839 |
| Underwood | 55,973 | 57,064 |
| Ung | 3,933 | 4,519 |
| Ungar | 1,373 | 1,606 |
| Unger | 14,668 | 14,738 |
| Unruh | 7,296 | 7,835 |
| Upchurch | 9,736 | 9,922 |
| Updegraff | 1,414 | 1,417 |
| Updike | 2,953 | 2,941 |
| Upham | 1,812 | 1,804 |
| Uphoff | 1,001 | 1,039 |
| Upshaw | 6,937 | 7,401 |
| Upson | 1,722 | 1,782 |
| Upton | 13,630 | 13,769 |
| Uranga | 1,061 | 1,266 |
From Urban to Urquiza
Uribe is the most common name here with over twenty-four thousand bearers in 2010.
The name is of Basque origin. The meaning comes from the words for the lower section in a village. Early bearers of the name lived at these ends of a settlement.
The name Urban has several variants in this section.
The names are found across Europe. The meaning comes from the Latin word for a person who lives in a town or city.
You might think that the name Urbina is also a variant. However, there are different theories for its meaning.
Urbina is Hispanic in origin and one theory points to words for water (ur) and two (bi). In other words, “two waters”. Early bearers may have lived by a confluence of two rivers.
| Last Name | 2000 Census | 2010 Census |
| Urban | 20,117 | 20,058 |
| Urbanek | 1,710 | 1,754 |
| Urbaniak | 1,383 | 1,402 |
| Urbano | 3,119 | 4,368 |
| Urbanski | 3,317 | 3,270 |
| Urbina | 10,511 | 15,055 |
| Urena | 8,064 | 11,066 |
| Uresti | 1,635 | 2,115 |
| Uriarte | 2,698 | 3,597 |
| Urias | 5,857 | 7,941 |
| Uribe | 18,283 | 24,612 |
| Urich | 1,608 | 1,536 |
| Urick | 1,130 | 1,205 |
| Urie | 1,051 | 1,092 |
| Uriostegui | 1,815 | 3,177 |
| Urquhart | 4,163 | 4,385 |
| Urquiza | 1,414 | 2,188 |
From Urrea to Uzzell
Utz is the most common name in this section with just over three thousand bearers in the 2010 census.
This was actually about a hundred less than in the 2000 census, so this is a name in decline.
Utz is a shortened form of Ulrich. We explained the fuller name in the first section.
| Last Name | 2000 Census | 2010 Census |
| Urrea | 1,785 | 2,360 |
| Urrutia | 5,225 | 7,208 |
| Urso | 2,672 | 2,691 |
| Urzua | 1,263 | 1,757 |
| Uselton | 1,235 | 1,302 |
| Usher | 7,118 | 7,477 |
| Usrey | 1,090 | 1,173 |
| Usry | 1,865 | 1,848 |
| Ussery | 4,910 | 5,036 |
| Utecht | 1,039 | 1,022 |
| Utley | 7,249 | 7,385 |
| Utt | 2,116 | 2,137 |
| Utter | 4,369 | 4,331 |
| Utterback | 3,051 | 3,125 |
| Utz | 3,151 | 3,044 |
| Uy | 2,461 | 3,633 |
| Uyeda | 1,301 | 1,326 |
| Uzzell | 1,035 | 1,094 |
