U.S. Surname Distribution Enter a surname (last name) into the form on this site and you'll get a map of the United States showing the distribution of people with this surname within the 50 United States. This map is often helpful when trying to determine a starting point for genealogy projects. The source of this data is the 1850 Census, 1880 Census, 1920 Census, and 1990's phone books. Note that the Census data is a sampling of 1 in 100 names, so the 1990 data is the most accurate. http://www.hamrick.com/names/