Alaska's Most Common Last Names — Russian & Filipino Roots

Top 3 — Alaska

#2 scandinavian

Johnson

Patronymic

5,000 people

1 in every 142 Alaska residents

Son of John in English — and the most common Norwegian surname (from 'Johan'). Alaska's Johnson counts blend Scandinavian fishermen who dominated Petersburg and Kodiak's salmon industry between 1900 and 1940 with military families at Elmendorf AFB who arrived from the 1940s onward.

#1 english

Smith

Occupational

5,800 people

1 in every 122 Alaska residents

From Old English 'smið', a metalworker. Fairbanks land records from 1903 — the year of the city's founding on the Tanana River — show Smith among the top three surnames of the first claim holders, arriving with the Gold Rush without any single ethnic community driving it.

#3 english

Williams

Patronymic

4,300 people

1 in every 165 Alaska residents

Son of William — Norman 'Willahelm', will plus helm. Elmendorf AFB and Fort Richardson's expansion in the 1940s–1960s brought a disproportionately military-connected African American community to Anchorage, where Williams is the most common surname in that demographic.

Name origins â€” top 20 surnames

Name origins - top 20 surnames

Name origins — top 20 surnames

Heritage

Gold Rush, Russian Missionaries, and Norwegian Fishermen

Under Russian rule (1741–1867), Orthodox missionaries required Alaska Natives to take Russian surnames at baptism, permanently embedding Petrov, Alexie, and similar names into Yup'ik and Alutiiq communities on the Yukon Delta and Kodiak Island. The 1898 Gold Rush stamped Skagway, Juneau, and Fairbanks with standard American names that now dominate the top 10. Norwegian settlers in Petersburg and Kodiak (1890s–1920s) then pushed Anderson and Nelson roughly 40 positions above their national rankings.

Did you know? More Alaska Natives bear Russian surnames — Petrov, Alexie, Pavlov — than surnames from their own languages, a legacy of Russian Orthodox missionaries who required Christian surnames for baptism across roughly 200 coastal villages between 1795 and 1867.

Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Alaska

Showing all 20 surnames

Tap a name to expand meaning

Smith english

5,800

1 in 122

Johnson scandinavian

5,000

1 in 142

Williams english

4,300

1 in 165

Brown english

3,700

1 in 192

From Old English 'brún', brown hair or complexion. Brown spread through the Gold Rush and expanded further when BIA officials in the early 1900s assigned color surnames to Alaska Native families in Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta villages — one of the few top-10 names with both settler and administrative-assignment roots in Alaska.

Jones english

3,400

1 in 209

Son of John via Welsh 'Ioan'. Welsh-descended miners from Utah and Nevada who joined the 1898 Klondike rush brought Jones to Alaska; Juneau and Skagway land records — the two gateway towns — show it among the top 10 surnames of original claim holders.

Anderson scandinavian

3,000

1 in 237

Son of Anders — one of the most common surnames across Norway and Sweden. Petersburg's Norwegian founder Peter Buschmann recruited almost exclusively from Kinn County in western Norway in 1897, and Anderson families followed within the decade, making it one of the founding surnames of southeast Alaska's commercial fishing industry.

Miller english

2,800

1 in 254

From Old English 'mylenweard', a grain miller. Miller Creek — a tributary of Goldstream Creek north of Fairbanks — was named after a Gold Rush claim-holding family, and the surname appears consistently in Fairbanks mining records from 1903–1910.

Davis english

2,600

1 in 273

Son of David, from Hebrew 'Dāwīḏ' (beloved). Fort Davis — a decommissioned Army post near Nome built after the Spanish-American War — reflects the name's early federal footprint in western Alaska, reinforced by military families who arrived during the 1940s–1950s infrastructure boom.

Wilson english

2,500

1 in 284

Son of Will (William). Wilson spread through Alaska via cannery labor contractors in Seattle and Portland — Wilson families from Oregon and Washington were among the most common recruits shipped north to Kodiak, Ketchikan, and Bristol Bay in the early 1900s, and some settled permanently.

#10

Nelson scandinavian

2,500

1 in 284

Son of Niels — a Scandinavian form equivalent to Nicholas. Nelson's presence in Alaska's top 10 is almost entirely explained by Norwegian fishing communities in Petersburg, Sitka, and Kodiak, where it peaked alongside Anderson during the commercial fishing migration of 1900–1930.

#11

Taylor english

2,300

1 in 309

From Old French 'tailleur', a tailor. Taylor families appear in Juneau mining records from the 1880s during the Alaska-Juneau Gold Mine's early development — many were veterans of California and Nevada mining camps who followed gold north to the Klondike and Tanana Valley.

#12

Thomas english

2,100

1 in 338

From Aramaic 'Tʼōmā', meaning twin. Where Russian Orthodox missionaries gave coastal Alaska Natives Russian surnames, Presbyterian missions in Tlingit and Haida communities at Wrangell, Kake, and Hydaburg introduced English patronymics — Thomas became one of the most widely adopted from the 1870s onward.

#13

Moore english

2,100

1 in 338

From Old English 'mōr', near open moorland. Moore appears in Sitka land records from the 1870s — carried by Irish-descended workers when Sitka was still the territorial capital and the only significant Euro-American settlement after the 1867 purchase from Russia.

#14

Thompson english

1,900

1 in 374

Son of Thom, with 'p' inserted as a 15th-century spelling convention. Presbyterian missions in Tlingit communities along the Inside Passage — particularly Wrangell and Kake — introduced Thompson as a standard English patronymic, displacing clan-based naming systems from the 1870s onward.

#15

White english

1,900

1 in 374

From Old English 'hwīt', white hair. White arrived through the Nome gold rush of 1899–1900 and spread further through BIA color-name assignments in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta — the same administrative practice that spread Brown in western Alaska.

#16

Harris english

1,800

1 in 394

Son of Harry, a medieval form of Henry (Germanic 'Heimirich'). Richard Harris, a Canadian prospector who co-discovered gold at Silver Bow Basin in 1880, is recognized as co-founder of Juneau — giving this already-common surname a founding-era resonance in Alaska's capital that sets it apart from its generic national profile.

#17

Clark english

1,700

1 in 418

From Latin 'clericus', a literate person. Clark clusters in Juneau and Sitka because both served as territorial capitals — the U.S. Army Signal Corps surveys of the 1880s–1890s and the civilian government that followed drew heavily on literate administrators from the Lower 48, making Clark nearly absent from rural Alaska Native communities.

#18

Martin french

1,700

1 in 418

From Latin 'Martinus', of Mars. Catholic missionaries working along the Yukon River in the late 1800s assigned Martin to interior Alaska Native communities alongside Russian-origin surnames — reinforced by French-Canadian Hudson's Bay Company traders who had worked the Yukon drainage before the 1867 American purchase.

#19

Lewis english

1,600

1 in 444

From Welsh 'Llywelyn' or Germanic 'Hlodwig'. Lewis entered Alaska through Welsh-descended Gold Rush miners and U.S. Army survey teams in the 1880s–1900s — several Tanana Valley geographic features carry the name from that mapping period.

#20

Lee english

1,600

1 in 444

From Old English 'lēah', near a meadow. Lee in Alaska has dual roots: Gold Rush-era English settlers and the Korean American community in Anchorage — where Lee/Yi is the most common surname — connected through Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Local Insight

Uniquely Alaska

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

Petrov other

Ranked #82 in Alaska versus #1350 nationally. That is 1268 spots higher here.

Russian Orthodox missionaries required Alaska Native converts to take Russian surnames for baptism between 1795 and 1867, a policy that outlasted the 1867 purchase by generations. Petrov concentrates in the Bethel region and Kodiak Island — the two heartlands of Russian Orthodox mission activity — roughly 6× more common per capita in Alaska than anywhere else in the country.

Nelson scandinavian

Ranked #10 in Alaska versus #55 nationally. That is 45 spots higher here.

Nelson ranks nearly 45 positions higher in Alaska than its national standing because Norwegian fishermen settled Petersburg, Kodiak, and Sitka between 1897 and 1930. Petersburg — founded by Peter Buschmann and staffed almost entirely from western Norway — remained so homogeneously Norwegian that the language was heard in local stores until the 1950s.

Santos spanish

Ranked #28 in Alaska versus #78 nationally. That is 50 spots higher here.

Santos arrived in Alaska almost exclusively through Filipino cannery workers recruited by Seattle labor contractors from the 1920s onward for Bristol Bay, Kodiak, and southeast Alaska. Anchorage's Filipino community — proportionally one of the largest in the United States — keeps Santos roughly 50 positions higher in Alaska than its national ranking.

Larson scandinavian

Ranked #24 in Alaska versus #168 nationally. That is 144 spots higher here.

Son of Lars — Norwegian/Swedish equivalent of Lawrence — Larson arrived with the same Scandinavian fishing wave as Anderson and Nelson. It concentrates in Sitka and Ketchikan, where Norwegian and Swedish cannery operations dominated the early 20th century, giving Alaska a per-capita rate approximately 3.5× the national average.

Charlie english

Ranked #118 in Alaska versus #3200 nationally. That is 3082 spots higher here.

BIA officials registering Alaska Native families in the early 20th century routinely recorded the father's English first name as the hereditary surname, producing names like Charlie, George, and Henry in Athabascan villages along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Charlie as a surname is roughly 9× more common per capita in Alaska than nationally, with almost no statistical presence in any other state.

Etymology

Alaska Last Name Meanings: Occupational, Patronymic & Habitational

Occupational Names

Four of Alaska's top 20 — Smith, Miller, Taylor, Clark — are occupational names, all arriving through the Gold Rush and early territorial administration. Alaska has no industrial-era immigrant worker wave, so these names cluster in the mining and administrative settlement layers, not in fishing or Native communities.

Smith (metalworker) Miller (grain miller) Taylor (tailor) Clark (literate clerk)

Patronymic Names

Patronymics account for 12 of Alaska's top 20, spanning three distinct traditions. English '-son' surnames (Johnson, Wilson, Thompson) came with Gold Rush settlers; Scandinavian variants (Anderson, Nelson) with Norwegian fishermen to Petersburg and Kodiak; Russian patronymics like Petrov were assigned to Alaska Natives by Orthodox missionaries — making Alaska possibly the only state where Russian-origin patronymics exist in statistical volume.

Johnson (son of John — English and Scandinavian) Anderson (son of Anders — Norwegian) Nelson (son of Niels — Scandinavian) Williams (son of William — English)

Habitational Names

Only Moore and Lee reach the top 20 as habitational names — a low proportion reflecting Alaska's lack of large-scale place-name-carrying migration. Most Alaska surnames arrived through Gold Rush transients, Scandinavian fishermen, or missionary and BIA assignment, none of which produced habitational names.

Moore (near a moor) Lee (near a meadow)

Quick Answers

What are the most common last names in Alaska?

The most common last names in Alaska are Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. Smith ranks first in this statewide list, but Alaska also shows unusual visibility for surnames shaped by Russian, Native, and Scandinavian history.

Why do so many Alaska Natives have Russian last names?

Russian Orthodox missionaries required Alaska Native converts to take Russian surnames for baptism between 1795 and 1867 — a policy that persisted long after Alaska was sold to the United States. Names like Petrov, Alexie, Pavlov, and Nicholai remain widespread in Yup'ik communities along the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and in Alutiiq communities on Kodiak Island, where Russian Orthodoxy is still the dominant faith.

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau — Frequently Occurring Surnames — 2010 Census surname frequency data — primary source for all counts, ratios, and rankings
Alaska State Archives — Territorial census records, land grants, and early settlement documentation
University of Alaska Fairbanks — Alaska Native Knowledge Network — Research on Alaska Native naming practices, Russian Orthodox missionary records, and BIA administrative history

Information is cross-referenced with official state archives.

#1 Surname: Smith
People named #1: 5,800
1 in every: 122 residents
Top origin: English
State population: 710,231
Census year: 2010

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Most Common Last Names in Alaska

Gold Rush, Russian Missionaries, and Norwegian Fishermen

Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Alaska

Uniquely Alaska