Top 3 — Illinois
Johnson means 'son of John,' common across English and Scandinavian traditions. Its heavy concentration in Cook County reflects the Great Migration, which drew African American families from Mississippi and Alabama to Chicago's South Side starting in the 1910s.
Smith derives from Old English 'smið,' denoting a metalworker or blacksmith. Anglo-American settlers from Virginia and Kentucky carried it into Illinois's central counties before statehood in 1818, making it the state's most common surname by the first federal census.
Williams derives from the Norman name William, meaning 'resolute protector.' It rose sharply in Illinois during the Great Migration, when African American families from the Deep South resettled in Chicago's South Side neighborhoods through the mid-20th century.
Name origins — top 20 surnames
Name origins - top 20 surnamesName origins — top 20 surnames
Heritage
Polish Settlement, the Great Migration, and Mexican Chicago
Polish immigrants flooded Chicago's Northwest Side in the 1890s, drawn by steel mills and meatpacking plants; neighborhoods like Avondale and the Polish Triangle became centers of Polish life that still shape Cook County surnames today. The Great Migration of the 1910s–1960s brought hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the South, while Mexican settlement in Pilsen and Little Village made Garcia and Martinez among Illinois's fastest-growing names.
Did you know? In the early 1900s, Chicago had so many Polish-born residents that it was called the 'Polish capital of America,' and that legacy is still visible in Cook County's unusually high density of Polish surnames like Kowalski and Kaminski.
Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Illinois
Showing all 20 surnames
#1
Smith
english
98,420
1 in 130
#2
Johnson
english
87,300
1 in 147
#3
Williams
english
79,100
1 in 162
#4
Brown
english
71,500
1 in 179
#5
Jones
welsh
68,900
1 in 186
#6
Garcia
spanish
66,200
1 in 194
#7
Miller
english
63,800
1 in 201
#8
Davis
english
60,400
1 in 212
#9
Martinez
spanish
56,700
1 in 226
#10
Wilson
english
54,200
1 in 236
#11
Anderson
scandinavian
52,800
1 in 243
#12
Taylor
english
50,100
1 in 256
#13
Thomas
english
51,600
1 in 248
#14
Hernandez
spanish
49,300
1 in 260
#15
Moore
english
47,800
1 in 268
#16
Jackson
english
46,500
1 in 275
#17
Martin
french
44,900
1 in 285
#18
Lee
english
43,400
1 in 295
#19
Thompson
english
42,100
1 in 304
#20
White
english
41,200
1 in 311
Local Insight
Uniquely Illinois
These family names rank far higher in Illinois than nationally — a direct fingerprint of the state's specific immigration waves.
Ranked #52 in Illinois versus #480 nationally. That is 428 spots higher here.
Kowalski means 'blacksmith' in Polish and concentrates heavily in Cook County, where the Polish community established itself in Avondale and around the Polish Triangle on the Near Northwest Side. The name arrived in Chicago's labor force from the 1890s onward, when workers from Galicia and Mazovia came for steel mill and meatpacking jobs.
Ranked #68 in Illinois versus #620 nationally. That is 552 spots higher here.
Kaminski is a habitational name from Polish 'Kamień,' meaning stone, and concentrates in Cook County's Polish communities. Wicker Park and the Near Northwest Side attracted Polish settlement from the 1890s, and the western suburbs of Cicero and Berwyn saw additional Polish growth through the 1920s.
Ranked #29 in Illinois versus #22 nationally.
Ramirez means 'son of Ramiro,' from a Visigothic name meaning 'wise counsel,' and ranks notably higher in Illinois than its national position would predict. Chicago's large Mexican-American community in Pilsen and Little Village on the Near Southwest Side is the primary reason.
Ranked #74 in Illinois versus #290 nationally. That is 216 spots higher here.
Novak means 'newcomer' across Slavic languages and concentrates in Illinois's Czech and Slovak communities. Czech immigrants settled in Berwyn and Cicero in the early 1900s, and Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood was historically Bohemian before Mexican families arrived in the mid-20th century.
Ranked #44 in Illinois versus #81 nationally. That is 37 spots higher here.
Sullivan anglicizes Irish Ó Súilleabháin and concentrates in Chicago's South Side Irish neighborhoods of Bridgeport and Beverly. Famine-era migration in the 1840s and 1850s brought large numbers of Sullivans into Chicago's canal and railroad labor force.
Etymology
Illinois Last Name Meanings: Occupational, Patronymic & Habitational
Occupational Names
Four of Illinois's top 20 surnames are occupational, reflecting the trades most essential to the state's founding — metalworking, grain milling, and tailoring. Miller carries an extra dimension in Illinois, where German immigrants brought the equivalent Müller to Chicago and Peoria in the mid-1800s, many of which were anglicized within a generation.
Patronymic Names
Patronymics make up nine of Illinois's top 20 surnames, appearing in both English (-son suffix) and Spanish (-ez suffix) traditions. The Great Migration raised the frequency of Johnson, Williams, and Jackson in Cook County, while Garcia, Martinez, and Hernandez reflect Mexican family names carried to Chicago's Near Southwest Side from the 1950s onward.
Habitational Names
Habitational names — describing where an ancestor lived — account for three of Illinois's top 20 surnames. Moore carries a dual origin in Illinois, arriving with both English settlers and Irish immigrants during the 1840s Famine; Lee reflects English, Korean, and Chinese naming traditions all present in Cook County.
Quick Answers
What are the most common last names in Illinois?
What are the most common Hispanic surnames in Illinois?
Why are Polish surnames so common in Illinois?
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau — Frequently Occurring Surnames — 2010 Census surname data — the most comprehensive public dataset of American family names
- Illinois Department of Public Health — State-level demographic data
- Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning — Regional population and demographic statistics
- #1 Surname
- Smith
- People named #1
- 98,420
- 1 in every
- 130 residents
- Top origin
- English
- State population
- 12,830,632
- 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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