Over the weekend, the NY Times reported on a new Census Bureau analysis of the most common surnames in the US. For the first time, two Hispanic surnames - Garcia and Rodriguez - made the top 10 most common in the nation. Martinez nearly cracked the top 10, coming in just after Wilson at number 11.
So, where do we Asians fall into the mix? The highest ranking Asian surname was none other than Lee, coming in as #22. I suspect, however, that Lee’s ranking is bolstered by individuals of both Asian and Scottish descent. Here’s a sampling of other Asian surnames:
No. 57 - Nguyen (up 172 spots)
No. 109 - Kim (up 124 spots)
No. 172 - Patel (up 419 spots)
No. 188 - Tran (up 219 spots)
No. 260 - Chen
No. 277 - Wong
No. 343 - Park
No. 368 - Le
No. 397 - Singh
I’m very surprised by the relatively low rankings of Chen and Wong. With such a sizable Chinese-American population, I’d have bet money that they would have cracked the top 200. I also wonder what impact the Filipino community had on the rankings of Hispanic surnames.
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darren wrote:
I just read a blog post that broke down the percentage of people with the last name Lee by race: 40% White, 38% Asian, 17% Black
http://thebabynamewizard.ivillage.com/parenting/archives/2007/11/neutral_colors_revisited_surna.html
As a Japanese-American, I wonder what is the highest ranked Japanese surname…
Posted on 19-Nov-07 at 4:25 pm | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
rad, Keyes is 2079 baby down 88 places since 1990… shit, I better reproduce.
A better headline would have been: “Whites down 6 to 20.”
Posted on 20-Nov-07 at 9:36 am | Permalink
Bo wrote:
Darren: I took a look through the top 1000 and couldn’t find a single Japanese-esque surname. The census list has 5000 in total but I’m just not that meticulous.
Jesse!: My role as a Diversity & Inclusion Specialist makes it impossible for me to pose any advancements by minorities as a disadvantage to caucasians. Creates too much potential for majority backlash.
Posted on 20-Nov-07 at 10:15 am | Permalink
ancient one wrote:
Note that Garcia and Rodriguez can also be Asian (Filipino) surnames also. It’s that Spanish colonization thing.
Posted on 20-Nov-07 at 2:33 pm | Permalink