What is the most common surname in the United States?

What's the most common last name in the United States? If you guessed Smith you are correct. According to an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street, the surname Smith occurs slightly more than 828 times per 100,000 people in the U.S., or about 2.442 million times.

Smith is a common surname because back in the Middle Ages, every village would have a blacksmith who supplied the village with metal objects like horseshoes, farm equipment, and swords. Surnames were mostly tied to your occupation, so if your last name is Smith, you probably had an ancestor who was a blacksmith. Surnames could also originate from a father's name, the location where you lived, or social status. The surname Smith isn't just common in the United States, it's also one of the most common surnames in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Smith, which has an English origin and is derived from one’s job as a metal worker, is by far the most common surname in the country. It is in the top three in nearly all states. The second most common is Johnson, which literally means the son of John. The third most common surname is Williams, which has English and Welsh origins and is patronymic from William.