Top 3 — Wisconsin
Smith comes from Old English for a metalworker or blacksmith. In Wisconsin it remained common through Yankee settlement, town-building, mining, farming, and later industrial work in Milwaukee and the Fox River valley.
Johnson means 'son of John,' but in Wisconsin it was reinforced by Scandinavian forms such as Johansen, Johansson, and Jonsson. Its first-place rank reflects both broad American use and the state's strong Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish settlement.
Anderson means 'son of Anders' or Andrew. Wisconsin's Scandinavian communities made the name much more prominent than a purely English settlement pattern would have done.
Name origins — top 20 surnames
Name origins - top 20 surnamesName origins — top 20 surnames
Heritage
German Farms, Norwegian Churches, and Upper Midwest Towns
Wisconsin's modern surname map began on Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oneida, and other Native homelands, then changed rapidly after statehood in 1848. The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that by 1850 one-third of the state's population was foreign-born, and later state promotion reached Europe in German, Norwegian, Dutch, and English. German settlement made Schmidt, Schultz, Meyer, Krueger, and Mueller unusually strong, while Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish families helped Johnson, Anderson, Olson, Peterson, Nelson, Larson, and Hanson outrank many standard English names.
Did you know? Krueger ranks eighteenth in Wisconsin but 817th nationally, one of the clearest signs that the state's German settlement history still shows up in ordinary phone-book surnames.
Top 20 Most Common Last Names in Wisconsin
Showing all 20 surnames
#1
Johnson
scandinavian
46,246
1 in 130
#2
Smith
english
31,351
1 in 191
#3
Anderson
scandinavian
27,968
1 in 214
#4
Miller
english
26,624
1 in 225
#5
Nelson
scandinavian
19,412
1 in 309
#6
Olson
scandinavian
19,326
1 in 310
#7
Brown
english
18,548
1 in 323
#8
Peterson
scandinavian
18,463
1 in 325
#9
Williams
welsh
17,113
1 in 350
#10
Schmidt
german
14,979
1 in 400
#11
Jones
welsh
14,924
1 in 402
#12
Schultz
german
14,000
1 in 428
#13
Thompson
english
12,560
1 in 477
#14
Davis
welsh
12,433
1 in 482
#15
Martin
latin
11,840
1 in 506
#16
Larson
scandinavian
11,466
1 in 523
#17
Meyer
german
11,398
1 in 526
#18
Krueger
german
10,352
1 in 579
#19
Hanson
scandinavian
10,154
1 in 590
#20
Mueller
german
10,031
1 in 598
Local Insight
Uniquely Wisconsin
These family names rank far higher in Wisconsin than nationally — a direct fingerprint of the state's specific immigration waves.
Ranked #18 in Wisconsin versus #817 nationally. That is 799 spots higher here.
Krueger is one of Wisconsin's strongest signature surnames because German-speaking families arrived in large numbers during the nineteenth century and often kept German spellings. The name's top-20 rank in Wisconsin, compared with 817th nationally, makes it far more state-specific than Smith or Johnson.
Ranked #20 in Wisconsin versus #422 nationally. That is 402 spots higher here.
Mueller survives in Wisconsin at high volume alongside the anglicized Miller. That pairing reflects a German settlement pattern strong enough to preserve original spellings across churches, farms, breweries, and urban neighborhoods.
Ranked #25 in Wisconsin versus #426 nationally. That is 401 spots higher here.
Schroeder is common in Wisconsin because German settlement extended beyond Milwaukee into rural eastern and central counties. The name means tailor or cloth-cutter in German, and its statewide rank shows how many families kept the German form.
Ranked #72 in Wisconsin versus #1373 nationally. That is 1301 spots higher here.
Schmitz is a compact German form related to Schmidt, meaning smith. Its Wisconsin concentration fits the same German Catholic and Lutheran settlement belt that made Schmidt, Schultz, Schneider, Weber, and Meyer so visible.
Ranked #86 in Wisconsin versus #1742 nationally. That is 1656 spots higher here.
Vang is a Hmong clan name that ranks far higher in Wisconsin than nationally because Hmong refugees and their families built lasting communities after the Vietnam War era. Wausau, Green Bay, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee all became important Hmong centers.
Etymology
Wisconsin Last Name Meanings: Occupational, Patronymic & Habitational
German Occupational Names
Wisconsin's top 20 contains a striking German work-name cluster: Schmidt, Schultz, Meyer, Krueger, and Mueller all come from trades, offices, or rural roles. Their rank reflects nineteenth-century German immigration and the persistence of German spellings in family, church, and land records.
Scandinavian Patronymics
Johnson, Anderson, Nelson, Olson, Peterson, Larson, and Hanson show the Scandinavian patronymic pattern of naming a child after a father's given name. Wisconsin's Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish communities made these names strong enough to outrank many standard English surnames.
English and Welsh Baseline Names
Smith, Brown, Williams, Jones, Thompson, Davis, and Martin form Wisconsin's broad English-language baseline. They arrived through older American migration and later city growth, but the state's top 20 is distinctive because German and Scandinavian names interrupt the usual national order.
Quick Answers
What are the most common last names in Wisconsin?
Why is Johnson the most common last name in Wisconsin?
Why are German last names so common in Wisconsin?
Sources
- Forebears - Most Common Surnames in Wisconsin — Primary source for statewide surname rankings, counts, frequencies, and national rank comparisons
- U.S. Census Bureau - 2010 Census Apportionment Results — Population reference for Wisconsin's 2010 Census total
- Wisconsin Historical Society - Immigration and Settlement — Background on Wisconsin immigration, foreign-born population, and state promotion to European immigrants
- Wisconsin Historical Society - Wisconsin 19th-Century Immigration and Growth — Context on Wisconsin's nineteenth-century immigrant groups, languages, settlement, mining, and growth
- Wisconsin 101 - Norwegian Communities in Wisconsin — Background on Norwegian immigrant communities, churches, and cultural institutions in Wisconsin
- University of Wisconsin Applied Population Laboratory - Hmong in Wisconsin: A Statistical Overview — 2010 Census-based context for Hmong communities in Wisconsin
- #1 Surname
- Johnson
- People named #1
- 46,246
- 1 in every
- 130 residents
- Top origin
- Scandinavian
- State population
- 5,686,986
- Census year
- 2026
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