Top 3 — Connecticut
Son of John, from Norse 'Jóhannr' via English. Johnson appears in Hartford and New Haven Colony records from the 1630s — among the first surnames documented in the state.
Metalworker, from Old English 'smið'. Colonial Connecticut's iron forges in the Litchfield Hills and Salisbury made this one of the state's earliest occupational surnames.
Son of William, from Norman 'Willahelm' — will and helm. Welsh settlers arriving with English Puritans in the 1630s brought Williams to Connecticut, where it has ranked in the top five ever since.
Name origins — top 20 surnames
Name origins - top 20 surnamesName origins — top 20 surnames
Heritage
Irish, Italian, Polish, and Puerto Rican Roots
Connecticut's Brass Valley — the Naugatuck River towns of Waterbury, Ansonia, and Derby — drew massive Italian and Polish immigration between 1880 and 1920. These factory workers settled alongside Irish families who arrived during the 1840s Famine, building Hartford's railroads and canals. By mid-century, Puerto Rican families established Hartford as one of the most heavily Puerto Rican cities per capita in the United States.
Did you know? New Haven's Wooster Square neighborhood, home to one of the most concentrated Italian-American communities in New England, gave the city its identity as America's pizza capital — surnames like Russo and Ferraro still cluster there at rates far above the national average.
Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Connecticut
Showing all 20 surnames
#1
Smith
english
26,800
1 in 133
#2
Johnson
english
23,200
1 in 154
#3
Williams
english
19,700
1 in 181
#4
Brown
english
19,200
1 in 186
#5
Jones
welsh
18,600
1 in 192
#6
Miller
english
14,300
1 in 250
#7
Davis
welsh
13,600
1 in 263
#8
Wilson
english
11,400
1 in 314
#9
Taylor
english
10,700
1 in 334
#10
Thomas
welsh
10,000
1 in 357
#11
Anderson
scandinavian
9,700
1 in 369
#12
Moore
english
9,500
1 in 376
#13
Martin
french
9,300
1 in 384
#14
White
english
9,100
1 in 393
#15
Thompson
english
8,900
1 in 402
#16
Harris
english
8,600
1 in 416
#17
Garcia
spanish
8,300
1 in 431
#18
Clark
english
8,100
1 in 441
#19
Lewis
welsh
7,500
1 in 477
#20
Robinson
english
7,100
1 in 503
Local Insight
Uniquely Connecticut
These family names rank far higher in Connecticut than nationally — a direct fingerprint of the state's specific immigration waves.
Ranked #42 in Connecticut versus #200 nationally. That is 158 spots higher here.
New Haven's Wooster Square neighborhood became one of the most densely settled Italian-American communities in New England, drawing heavily from southern Italy between 1880 and 1920. Russo — from the Italian for red-haired — clusters in New Haven County at rates far above the national average.
Ranked #30 in Connecticut versus #78 nationally. That is 48 spots higher here.
Sullivan (Irish Ó Súilleabháin — dark-eyed one) arrived with the massive Famine-era Irish migration of the 1840s–1850s. Hartford's South End and Bridgeport's East Side became centers of Irish settlement, and Sullivan remains disproportionately common across Hartford County.
Ranked #88 in Connecticut versus #650 nationally. That is 562 spots higher here.
An occupational name for an ironworker or blacksmith. Waterbury's brass and metal factories drew tens of thousands of southern Italian immigrants in the 1890s–1910s, making the Naugatuck Valley one of the densest Italian-surname clusters in New England.
Ranked #115 in Connecticut versus #1050 nationally. That is 935 spots higher here.
From French 'l'évêque' — the bishop. French-Canadian textile workers from Quebec settled Willimantic and Putnam in the 1870s–1890s; Levesque is rare across most of the country but clusters noticeably in northeastern Connecticut mill towns.
Ranked #78 in Connecticut versus #820 nationally. That is 742 spots higher here.
From the Italian place name Luca, in Tuscany. New Haven and Waterbury's Italian communities — both established before 1900 — produced dense second-generation concentrations of DeLuca that persist in New Haven County today.
Etymology
Connecticut Last Name Meanings: Occupational, Patronymic & Habitational
Patronymic Names
Patronymics account for 12 of Connecticut's top 20 surnames — the dominant naming type. Johnson, Williams, Jones, Davis, Wilson, Thomas, Anderson, Martin, Thompson, Harris, Lewis, and Robinson all follow 'son of' patterns from English, Welsh, Scandinavian, and French traditions, reflecting the state's layered colonial and immigrant heritage.
Occupational Names
Connecticut's colonial ironworks, grist mills, textile factories, and brass foundries left a strong occupational surname legacy. Smith, Miller, Taylor, and Clark all descend from medieval trades — and the state's 19th-century manufacturing boom in the Naugatuck Valley drew additional waves of families who kept these names among the most common in every county.
Italian & Irish Heritage Names
Connecticut has one of the highest concentrations of Italian-American and Irish-American residents per capita in the United States. The Brass Valley's factory towns and Hartford's South End Irish neighborhoods created surname clusters — Russo, Ferraro, Sullivan, Murphy — that make Connecticut's top-surname distribution noticeably different from the national average.
Quick Answers
What are the most common last names in Connecticut?
Why are Italian last names so common in Connecticut?
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau — Frequently Occurring Surnames — 2010 Census surname frequency data — primary source for all counts, ratios, and rankings
- Connecticut State Library — History and Genealogy — Colonial-era records, probate documents, and genealogical resources for Connecticut families
- New England Historic Genealogical Society — Comprehensive genealogical records and surname research for New England states including Connecticut
- #1 Surname
- Smith
- People named #1
- 26,800
- 1 in every
- 133 residents
- Top origin
- English
- State population
- 3,574,097
- Census year
- 2010
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Top 20 most common surnames per state - with origins, meanings, and heritage context. Is yours on the list?
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