Massachusetts history runs deep, in all aspects of life. From some of the nation's most historic colleges, oldest restaurants, and original professional athletics teams. In addition to pride in our state's history, Massachusetts residents also take pride in their unique personal heritage as well.

The city of Boston has deep roots in both the Irish and Italian communities with almost 20% of the state's population claiming Irish descent, followed by about 12% of the population coming from Italian heritage. English, French, German, and Polish round out the top six countries of descent for Massachusetts residents.

With such a hodge podge of heritage and history, we wondered what the most common last names in Massachusetts are. With just under 7 million residents there is certainly a wide variety of names, but some are more common than others. We were expecting the list to be top-heavy with last names of Irish descent, but the list of the top 25, according to Forebears, is rather eclectic. Did your surname make the list?

Last Name                                       Number of People Who Bare That Name

1Sullivan24,964
2Johnson23,404
3Brown22,700
4Murphy20,129
5Williams16,876
6Anderson14,293
7White14,195
8Martin13,583
9Davis13,548
10McCarthy13,217
11Miller12,922
12Jones12,869
13Lee12,703
14Silva12,695
15Walsh12,591
16Clark10,873
17Rodriguez10,622
18Kelly10,385
19Burke10,055
20Collins9,936
21Ryan9,900
22Wilson9,846
23Taylor9,505
24Obrien9,288
25King9,100

 

The most common last name in the United States is Smith, which didn't even crack the top 25 for Massachusetts.

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