Map reveals the most popular last name in every state

The United States may best be known as the land of the free and the home of the Smiths.

Genealogy website Ancestry.com pulled data on the most common surnames in every state and published the most popular ones in a map on its website.

Smith, a name once reserved for metal workers that is derived from the Old English for “to smite” or “strike,” is one of the most popular last names in 45 states.

California, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota are not among them. Some of their most common surnames have origins outside the English language, like Garcia and Lopez – both of which are common in California, a state with a large Hispanic population.

Other popular surnames include Johnson, Miller, Jones, Williams, and Anderson. People in the Northwest are more likely to encounter an Anderson than a Brown, which is more common on the East Coast.

We first saw the map in a tweet from Sam Ro, managing editor of Yahoo Finance.

Here’s the map from Ancestry.com.