The 25 Most Popular Last Names in New Jersey

Have you ever done research on the history of your surname or last name?

A little digging will uncover some pretty interesting facts.

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According to American Surnames, Ryan, my last name, is pretty common in New Jersey.

It's the 41st most popular surname in New Jersey.

Plus, there are 516 Ryans for every one million people in the United States.

The history of my last name is too surprising.

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Ireland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

So many times I've heard people tell stories about what their last names 'should have' been or 'could have been.'

It all goes back to when our relatives were arriving in America.

Back then there weren't computers and electronic ways to scan for errors.

Therefore, typos and misspellings were not uncommon.

For example, I took a look at names related to my last name, Ryan.

I simple instance of being misheard could have resulted in the surname Ryan being:

• RYNN
• RONAN
• CRYAN
• ROHAN
• RUANE
• RINEY
• ROONEY
• RAINEY
• RYNNE
• RONAYNE
• RONNIE
• ROME
• RENNIE
• RYUN

New Jersey is so diverse that I wanted to see which last names are most common here in The Garden State.

Jersey has a high Italian and Irish population, so I thought some of the popular last names from those ethnicities would rank high.

I was wrong.

Check out New Jersey's top 25. After you see the last name, look for how popular the surname is in the United States.

Think you know number one? Here we go.