The U.S. Census Bureau has released some data from the 1990 census, including statistics on surname frequency. While the survey didn't cover the entire census-- instead it was a sampling that included 7.3 million names-- the data generated gives a reasonable estimate of the popularity of surnames in the United States.
In the table below, the first column is the name varient; the second is the popularity of the surname in the entire sample, expressed as a percentage; the third is a cumulative percentage of the surname plus all surnames occurring more frequently; and the last the rank. There was a total of 88,799 surnames in the list.
The way to think about the cumulative percentage is if you put all those 7.3 people in a line based on their surname frequency, two-thirds of the people would be ahead of the first Slavin.
| Name | Freq. | Cum. Freq. | Rank |
| SLAVIN | 0.002 | 66.804 | 6783 |
| SLAVENS | 0.001 | 72.985 | 11952 |
| SLAVEN | 0.001 | 73.802 | 12946 |
| SLEVIN | 0.000 | 77.765 | 19420 |
| SLAVINSKI | 0.000 | 86.572 | 54169 |
| SLOVINSKY | 0.000 | 80.437 | 26042 |
| SLAVIK | 0.000 | 80.438 | 26044 |
| SLAVICK | 0.000 | 81.983 | 31110 |
| SLAVIS | 0.000 | 88.352 | 67772 |
| SLOVINSKI | 0.000 | 89.455 | 78021 |
Note: Sleaven, Slavy, and Slavey were not found in the sample. The full list of names and other information on the survey can be found here.
Copyright © 2005 Larry Slavens. All rights reserved.