Top 3 — California
Spanish patronymic from Fernando, itself from Germanic elements meaning 'bold journey.' In California, Hernandez families are concentrated in the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley, tied to 20th-century agricultural labor migration from Mexico.
A medieval Basque given name of uncertain, possibly pre-Roman origin, later adopted as a patronymic across the Iberian Peninsula. Garcia is deeply embedded in Southern California through centuries of Mexican settlement, with Los Angeles County holding one of the largest concentrations in the United States.
English occupational surname for an ironsmith or metalworker, one of the oldest trade surnames in the language. Anglo-American settlers named Smith arrived in California during the 1848 Gold Rush, establishing the name across the Sacramento Valley.
Name origins — top 20 surnames
Name origins - top 20 surnamesName origins — top 20 surnames
Heritage
Spanish Colonial, Dust Bowl, and Pacific Rim Roots
Spanish surnames dominate California's top ten, rooted in Mexican settlement predating statehood and reinforced by 20th-century labor migration to the Central Valley and East Los Angeles. Anglo-American names arrived during the 1848 Gold Rush and the 1930s Dust Bowl exodus from Oklahoma and Texas. Post-1975 Vietnamese resettlement centered in Orange County's Little Saigon added Nguyen to California's most frequent names within a generation.
Did you know? California is the only U.S. state where Garcia outranks Smith as the most common surname.
Top 20 Most Common Last Names in California
Showing all 20 surnames
#1
Garcia
spanish
186,300
1 in 200
#2
Hernandez
spanish
167,600
1 in 222
#3
Smith
english
149,000
1 in 250
#4
Martinez
spanish
130,400
1 in 286
#5
Lopez
spanish
111,800
1 in 333
#6
Johnson
english
104,300
1 in 357
#7
Rodriguez
spanish
100,600
1 in 370
#8
Gonzalez
spanish
96,900
1 in 385
#9
Williams
welsh
89,400
1 in 417
#10
Brown
english
82,000
1 in 454
#11
Lee
english
78,200
1 in 477
#12
Wilson
scottish
67,100
1 in 555
#13
Davis
welsh
63,300
1 in 589
#14
Anderson
english
59,600
1 in 625
#15
Taylor
english
55,900
1 in 667
#16
Nguyen
vietnamese
52,200
1 in 714
#17
Thomas
welsh
48,400
1 in 770
#18
Moore
english
46,600
1 in 799
#19
Jackson
english
44,700
1 in 833
#20
White
english
43,000
1 in 867
Local Insight
Uniquely California
These family names rank far higher in California than nationally — a direct fingerprint of the state's specific immigration waves.
Ranked #16 in California versus #50 nationally. That is 34 spots higher here.
California holds roughly 40 percent of all Vietnamese-Americans in the United States, the majority concentrated in Orange County's Little Saigon neighborhood following post-1975 refugee resettlement. No other state comes close to California's density of the Nguyen surname.
Ranked #55 in California versus #200 nationally. That is 145 spots higher here.
Chan is a Cantonese romanization of the surname 陳 (Chén), dominant among Cantonese-speaking immigrants who founded San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1850s. California's Cantonese community kept Chan disproportionately concentrated in the Bay Area and Los Angeles relative to its national distribution.
Ranked #70 in California versus #300 nationally. That is 230 spots higher here.
Wong is a second major Cantonese romanization of 王 (Wáng) or 黃 (Huáng), both common among the railroad and mining laborers who arrived in California from the 1860s onward. San Francisco's Chinatown and the broader Bay Area remain the historic center of the Wong surname in America.
Ranked #35 in California versus #150 nationally. That is 115 spots higher here.
Chavez is strongly associated with California's Central Valley farmworker communities, where labor organizer César Chávez built the United Farm Workers movement in the 1960s. The surname is heavily concentrated in agricultural counties from Fresno to Ventura.
Ranked #2200 in California versus #2000 nationally.
Yokoyama, meaning 'beside the mountain,' is a Japanese surname concentrated in California due to the pre-WWII Japanese-American farming communities in the San Joaquin Valley and the Gardena and Torrance areas of Los Angeles County. California holds the largest Japanese-American population in the nation.
Etymology
California Last Name Meanings: Occupational, Patronymic & Habitational
Spanish Patronymics
Six of California's top ten surnames are Spanish patronymics, rooted in centuries of Mexican settlement and reinforced by 20th-century migration. The Central Valley and Greater Los Angeles are the primary population centers for names like Garcia, Hernandez, Martinez, Lopez, Rodriguez, and Gonzalez.
Anglo-American Surnames
English, Welsh, and Scottish surnames entered California in force during the 1848 Gold Rush and again through the 1930s Dust Bowl migration from Oklahoma and Texas. Occupational names like Smith and Taylor and patronymics like Johnson, Williams, and Davis are distributed broadly across the state.
East and Southeast Asian Surnames
California's Pacific coast position made it the primary entry point for Chinese laborers from the 1850s, Japanese farmers from the 1890s, and Vietnamese refugees after 1975. Surnames like Lee, Nguyen, Chan, and Wong are disproportionately concentrated in California compared to any other state.
Quick Answers
What are the most common last names in California?
Why are Spanish surnames so common in California?
Why is Nguyen so common in California?
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau — Frequently Occurring Surnames — 2010 Census surname frequency data — primary source for all counts, ratios, and rankings
- United Farm Workers — History of César Chávez — Historical background on the Chavez surname's association with California's Central Valley farmworker movement
- #1 Surname
- Garcia
- People named #1
- 186,300
- 1 in every
- 200 residents
- Top origin
- English
- State population
- 37,253,956
- Census year
- 2010
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Side-by-side comparison of population, area, income, taxes, climate, and more.
Top 20 most common surnames per state - with origins, meanings, and heritage context. Is yours on the list?
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