Still going back in my blog queue, now to a 12/15/16 NYT piece by Sam Roberts, (in print) “Increasingly, Surnames Are Latino, Census Says” and (on-line) “Hispanic Surnames on the Rise in U.S. as Immigration Surges”:
Taylor and Thomas are out. Lopez and Gonzalez are in. Six of the 15 most common surnames in the United States were of Hispanic origin in 2010, compared with four of 15 in 2000 and none as recently as 1990.
Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones still remain the most common of 6.3 million last names reported in 2010, according to a Census Bureau analysis released on Thursday, but Garcia had edged up from eighth to sixth, closing in on Jones and Brown. (Rounding out the Top 10 were Miller and Davis.)
The ascendancy of the Hispanic names reflects both the surge of immigrants from Latin America over the last several decades and the fact that Hispanic surnames tend to be less diverse (a disproportionate 16 percent of Hispanic people have one of the top 10 Hispanic names).
Garcia and Rodriguez were joined in the Top 10 in 2010 by Martinez (the 15 most popular also include Hernandez).
“I hope it means that more people named Gonzalez and Garcia and Hernandez become civic leaders and teachers and become the future of America,” said Eric Gonzalez, the acting Brooklyn district attorney.
Most of the surnames increasing fastest among the highest-ranking 1,000 are Asian (Zhang was up 111 percent, followed by Li, Ali, Liu and Khan) and three of the 15 fastest growing were Hispanic (led by Vazquez, which was up 63 percent, followed by Bautista and Velazquez).
Among those 15, Patel proliferated by 58 percent, and also by the most numerically, nearly 250,000.[The name Patel is primarily from Gujarat, but there are also Patels from surrounding areas.]
Summary of the data:
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To welcome the name Lopez to the #12 slot (in 2010, remember), here are two Lopezes from pop culture: Jennifer and George:
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Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), also known as JLo, is an American singer, actress, dancer, fashion designer, author, and producer. (link)
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George Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. (link)
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