Naming Names

I was thinking the other day that almost nobody asks me to spell my last name anymore. Spanish-speakers or not, just about everyone knows it's H-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z. The few who wonder whether it ends in Spanish "z" or Portuguese "s" are actually demonstrating they are culturally savvy enough to know the difference exists.

"Hernandez, it's as common as Smith," the front-desk attendant jokingly said the other day at the gym in my not-particularly Hispanic-heavy hometown. She had announced over the loudspeaker that there was a phone call for a Mr. Hernandez -- - and three sweaty guys ran up the stairs thinking it was for them.

Well, maybe not quite as common. Smith is No. 1. Hernandez, No. 15.

Still, pretty high up there.

The figures come from a new Census Bureau report, which also says Garcia and Rodriguez are Nos. 8 and 9 among the most common surnames in the United States. As The New York Times put it, this marks "probably the first time that any non-Anglo name was among the 10 most common in the nation."

Is that a big deal? Yes, but not as much as it might seem at first glance.

Clearly, the list shows there are demographic changes going on. Those two Spanish last names were ranked No. 18 and No. 22 in the 1990 census; back then, there was only one other in the top 25. The new report, based on the census of 2000, has six Spanish surnames in the top 25.

Some Asian names, too, leaped up the charts. Vietnamese Nguyen is No. 57, up from No. 229 in 1990. The most common South Asian name was Patel, which ranked No. 172, up from No. 591. Lee, which can be English, Chinese or Korean, is No. 22.

Most of the rest are Anglo, as the Times said, shorthand for surnames that originated in Great Britain. You hit Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller and Davis before you get to Garcia. Eighty-one of the top 100 are British.

To go only by this surnames list, you'd think four-fifths of Americans are of British descent and most of the rest Hispanic, with a handful of Asians and non-British, non- Spanish Europeans.

Which is not how American history has worked.

For one thing, there are people whose family names were obliterated. Some of those British-sounding names are borne today by the descendants of Africans who were owned by people who really did trace their ancestry to Britain.

For another: all those immigrants from yesteryear are missing -- the first non-Anglo, non-Spanish European surname is the Germanic Schmidt at No. 173. Why is that?

It's a similar story for those other sources of immigration in past generations, Eastern Europe and Italy. Among Polish or Italian surnames, there simply is no equivalent of Smith or Garcia, no handful of dominant names like there are in English- and Spanish speaking countries.

The result is that the rise of all those Hispanic surnames ranking so high on the list makes it seem as if for the first time in American history some sort of Anglo hegemony is being challenged.

Actually, it's history repeating itself - - more immigrants, just like in past years, except now they are more visible on a list of American surnames.

- Roger Hernandez is a syndicated columnist

and writer-in-residence at New Jersey

Institute of Technology.