Most Common Last Names in Alabama

Top 3 — Alabama

#2 english

Williams

Patronymic

38,200 people

1 in every 125 Alabama residents

Son of William — Norman 'Willahelm', will plus helm. Williams nearly ties Smith in Alabama because freedmen in Dallas, Wilcox, and Perry counties — where enslaved people had outnumbered white settlers for decades — adopted it en masse after emancipation in 1865.

#1 english

Smith

Occupational

39,600 people

1 in every 121 Alabama residents

From Old English 'smið', a metalworker. Alabama land records from 1808 show Smith among the first documented surnames in the territory — it arrived with Scots-Irish settlers from the Carolinas and spread further after 1865 when Black Belt freedmen adopted it as a new legal name.

#3 english

Johnson

Patronymic

31,000 people

1 in every 154 Alabama residents

Son of John, from Hebrew 'Yohanan' (God is gracious). Johnson was among the most common choices for Black Belt freedmen after 1865 — ethnically neutral, widely recognized, and already present in both white and Black communities across the state.

Name origins â€” top 20 surnames

Name origins - top 20 surnames

Name origins — top 20 surnames

Heritage

Scots-Irish Settlers, Freed Slaves, and a French Port

Alabama's population exploded from 9,000 to 300,000 between 1810 and 1830 as Scots-Irish families followed Jackson's military road into the Tennessee Valley. When emancipation came in 1865, freedmen across Dallas, Hale, and Greene counties chose legal surnames for the first time — pushing Williams and Johnson far above their national rankings. German settlers in Mobile Bay's Baldwin County added a third stream, leaving names like Enfinger nearly exclusive to coastal Alabama.

Did you know? Enfinger — brought to Baldwin and Mobile counties by German Baptist settlers from Baden-Württemberg between 1845 and 1870 — exists in statistically significant numbers in only two Alabama counties, making it the most geographically concentrated surname in the American South.

Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Alabama

Showing all 20 surnames

Tap a name to expand meaning

Smith english

39,600

1 in 121

Williams english

38,200

1 in 125

Johnson english

31,000

1 in 154

Brown english

26,800

1 in 178

From Old English 'brún', brown hair or complexion. Brown concentrations peak in Greene, Sumter, and Hale counties — the antebellum plantation heartland — where it spread through Carolinas-origin settler families and post-1865 adoption by freedmen.

Jones english

25,400

1 in 188

The defining Welsh surname — son of John via 'Ioan'. Welsh-origin families who settled the hill country east of Birmingham (Walker, Blount, St. Clair counties) in the 1810s–1840s made Jones the most characteristically Appalachian surname in Alabama's top 10.

Davis english

22,600

1 in 212

Son of David, from Hebrew 'Dāwīḏ' (beloved). Davis already ranked among Alabama's most common surnames before the Civil War; Jefferson Davis's presidency of the Confederacy — with Montgomery as its first capital — gave the name unmistakable symbolic weight that persisted through Reconstruction.

Wilson english

18,900

1 in 253

Son of Will, a contraction of William. Wilson appears in Madison County deed books from 1812, carried by Scots-Irish families who followed the Tennessee River corridor into Limestone, Lawrence, and Colbert counties via the Huntsville land lottery of 1809.

Moore english

18,400

1 in 260

From Old English 'mōr', someone near open uncultivated moorland. Moore concentrates in Lauderdale and Morgan counties — carried by Scots-Irish families from the Cumberland Plateau — and occasionally by Irish families anglicizing 'Ó Mórdha' (great chief) who came through the Tennessee Valley in the 1810s.

Taylor english

17,800

1 in 268

From Old French 'tailleur', one who cuts cloth. Taylor families appear in Alabama's earliest land grants in the Tombigbee River valley (Sumter and Choctaw counties) before statehood in 1819, and spread further across the Black Belt through post-emancipation adoption.

#10

Anderson scottish

17,100

1 in 279

Son of Anders (Andrew), from Greek 'Andreas' (manly). Anderson followed the Scots-Irish route from Scotland to Ulster to the Appalachian corridor, settling Lauderdale, Colbert, and Franklin counties along the Tennessee Valley in the 1810s–1830s.

#11

Thomas english

16,600

1 in 288

From Aramaic 'Tʼōmā', meaning twin. Welsh-origin families from the Carolinas brought Thomas into Perry, Hale, and Marion counties — where they founded the earliest Baptist congregations — and freedmen in the same Black Belt counties adopted it widely after 1865.

#12

Jackson english

16,200

1 in 295

Son of Jack, a medieval diminutive of John. Andrew Jackson's defeat of the Creek Nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Tallapoosa County, 1814) opened Alabama to settlement — many families who followed his military road carried or adopted the name, and Jackson County in northeast Alabama commemorates the same event.

#13

White english

15,700

1 in 304

From Old English 'hwīt', white hair. White concentrations peak in Bibb and Shelby counties — the coalfield region south of Birmingham — where Virginia-origin settler families arrived in the 1820s before coal and iron transformed the area after the Civil War.

#14

Harris english

15,100

1 in 317

Son of Harry, a medieval form of Henry (Germanic 'Heimirich', home ruler). Harris appears in Alabama's first General Assembly records in 1819, carried by early settlers of the Cahaba River valley in Bibb and Dallas counties — the fertile center of Alabama's first cotton economy.

#15

Martin french

14,600

1 in 327

From Latin 'Martinus', of Mars. Martin in Alabama has two roots: French Huguenot families from South Carolina settled Mobile Bay in the early 1800s, and Irish Catholic families in Mobile — which retained its French (1702) and Spanish (1780–1813) Catholic traditions — concentrated the name in Mobile County above all others.

#16

Thompson english

13,800

1 in 346

Son of Thom, with the 'p' inserted as a 15th-century spelling convention. Thompson concentrations peak in the Wiregrass (Dale, Coffee, Geneva counties), settled by English families from Georgia and South Carolina after the Creek removal of the 1820s — nearly absent from Mobile County, where coastal settlement followed entirely different migration routes.

#17

Young english

13,300

1 in 359

From Old English 'geong', a nickname distinguishing a son from his father. Scots-Irish families from East Tennessee brought Young to Sand Mountain (DeKalb and Marshall counties) in the 1820s–1840s after the Cherokee removal opened north Alabama's hill country, and the name remains disproportionately concentrated there today.

#18

Allen english

12,900

1 in 371

Possibly from Celtic 'Ailín' (little rock), or a habitational name from Brittany carried to England at the Norman Conquest. Allen families entered Alabama through the Coosa River valley (Talladega and Coosa counties) in the 1820s, following the corridor cleared by the Creek War of 1813–14.

#19

King english

12,500

1 in 382

From Old English 'cyning' (king), originally a nickname for someone in a royal household. After 1865, King became a deliberate choice among Black Belt freedmen in Hale, Greene, and Sumter counties — where it carried a connotation of dignity and status for communities rebuilding their identities under Reconstruction.

#20

Wright english

12,100

1 in 395

From Old English 'wyrhta', a craftsman who works with wood. Wright families are among the earliest documented surnames in the Tombigbee River valley (Sumter and Choctaw counties) — former Choctaw territory until the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek — appearing in county land surveys within a year of the treaty.

Local Insight

Uniquely Alabama

These family names rank far higher in Alabama than nationally — a direct fingerprint of the state's specific immigration waves.

Dubose french

Ranked #89 in Alabama versus #1850 nationally. That is 1761 spots higher here.

French Protestant refugees from South Carolina brought Dubose (from 'du bois', of the forest) into Alabama's Black Belt (Dallas, Wilcox, Marengo counties) in the 1810s–1830s. Alabama has more Dubose families per capita than any state except South Carolina — roughly 8× the national average — with the name appearing in Selma land records from 1818.

Enfinger german

Ranked #312 in Alabama versus #8400 nationally. That is 8088 spots higher here.

German Baptist families from Baden-Württemberg settled Mobile Bay between 1845 and 1875, drawn by German-language congregations in Fairhope and Daphne. Outside Baldwin and Mobile counties — and adjacent northwest Florida — Enfinger barely registers nationally.

Whatley english

Ranked #143 in Alabama versus #2100 nationally. That is 1957 spots higher here.

Whatley families established cotton plantations in Barbour County in the 1820s after the Creek removal, spreading through the Wiregrass triangle (Henry, Houston counties) to a per-capita concentration roughly 5× the national average.

Looney irish

Ranked #198 in Alabama versus #3600 nationally. That is 3402 spots higher here.

From Irish 'Ó Luinigh' (descendant of the warrior). Scots-Irish families from East Tennessee brought Looney to Sand Mountain (Marshall and DeKalb counties) in the 1820s–1840s, giving Alabama a concentration roughly 4× the national per-capita rate confined almost entirely to the Appalachian northeast.

Bonner scottish

Ranked #167 in Alabama versus #2900 nationally. That is 2733 spots higher here.

The Bonner family settled the Mobile Delta in the 1790s before American sovereignty, and Baldwin County's Tensaw Delta communities still carry Alabama's highest Bonner density. Alabama's per-capita Bonner rate is roughly 3× the national average, concentrated within 60 miles of Mobile Bay.

Etymology

Alabama Last Name Meanings: Occupational, Patronymic & Habitational

Occupational Names

Three of Alabama's top 20 — Smith, Taylor, and Wright — derive from medieval trades, a lower proportion than industrial states like Illinois. All three arrived with Scots-Irish and English settler families in the 1810s–1820s; none appear significantly in the post-emancipation naming wave, which favored patronymics.

Smith (metalworker) Taylor (tailor) Wright (cartwright or wheelwright)

Patronymic Names

Patronymics account for 12 of Alabama's top 20. The English '-son' suffix (Johnson, Wilson, Anderson, Thompson) came with Scots-Irish settlers; the post-emancipation wave of 1865 drove Williams, Jackson, and Brown far above their national rankings in Black Belt counties like Dallas, Hale, and Greene.

Williams (son of William) Johnson (son of John) Anderson (son of Anders) Jackson (son of Jack)

Habitational Names

Only Moore reaches Alabama's top 20 as a habitational name, but the most state-specific surnames here — Dubose (of the forest), Whatley (wheat clearing), Bonner (Mobile Delta) — are all habitational. Huguenot and Scots-Irish traditions preserved place-of-origin names more faithfully than later immigrant waves, which is why these names are hyper-localized to single counties.

Moore (near a moor) Dubose (of the forest) Whatley (wheat clearing)

Quick Answers

What are the most common last names in Alabama?

The most common last names in Alabama are Smith, Williams, Johnson, Brown, and Jones. In this dataset, Smith ranks first statewide, followed closely by Williams and Johnson.

Why are Williams and Johnson so common in Alabama?

Williams ranks second and Johnson third in Alabama because both spread strongly in the Black Belt after emancipation in 1865. Counties such as Dallas, Hale, Wilcox, and Marengo had large freed populations, and both surnames became common legal family names there.

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau — Frequently Occurring Surnames — 2010 Census surname frequency data — primary source for all counts, ratios, and rankings
Alabama Department of Archives and History — Early Alabama land records, territorial census data, and post-emancipation freedmen's bureau records
Auburn University Center for Demographic Research — Alabama-specific population and demographic analysis, including surname distribution studies

Information is cross-referenced with official state archives.

#1 Surname: Smith
People named #1: 39,600
1 in every: 121 residents
Top origin: English
State population: 4,779,736
Census year: 2010

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Most Common Last Names in Alabama

Scots-Irish Settlers, Freed Slaves, and a French Port

Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Alabama

Uniquely Alabama