African American Last Name Generator

Browse 500 surnames that census and family-history records show among African American families, from Washington, Freeman and Banks to Prioleau, Batiste and Pettway.

About African American last names

African American surnames carry a history that most American family names do not. Before 1865 the law treated most Black Southerners as property, and federal records rarely gave them a surname: the slave schedules of 1850 and 1860 list most people by age and sex, without a name. The 1870 census was the first to record the formerly enslaved by full name.

The names on that census came from several places. Many families had used a surname among themselves for years. Some kept or took the name of a slaveholder, sometimes an earlier one rather than the last. Others chose something new. Freeman states a status, and Booker T. Washington wrote in Up From Slavery that freedmen he knew renamed themselves Lincoln or Sherman. In Census Bureau tables from 2000, about nine in ten people named Washington were Black, the highest share of any common surname, with Jefferson, Booker, Banks and Mosley also near the top.

Region shaped the rest. This list includes Lowcountry and Gullah Geechee names such as Prioleau and Smalls, Louisiana Creole names such as Batiste and Guillory, old free families of Virginia and the Carolinas such as Chavis and Pettiford, and Pettway, carried by many families of Gee's Bend, Alabama. It also has names adopted in the twentieth century, including Muhammad, Shabazz and Bey.

How to choose African American last names

• Let region guide you. Prioleau, Manigault and Gourdine point to the South Carolina Lowcountry, Metoyer and Rachal to Cane River in Louisiana, and Bazemore and Rascoe to northeastern North Carolina.
• For a character born before 1865, remember that the surname may not appear in any record until 1870. How the family came by the name can be part of the story.
• If you are tracing your own family, start with the 1870 census and work back through Freedmen's Bureau and Freedman's Bank records, which often name relatives and earlier surnames.
• A surname shared with a slaveholding family is a lead, not proof. Many families took a name from an earlier household, from a parent, or by their own choice.
• Every surname here belongs to living families. If you are naming a real project or writing about real people, search the full name yourself first.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common African American last names?

Williams is the most common, followed by Johnson, Smith, Jones, Brown, Jackson, Davis, Thomas, Harris and Robinson. These are also among the most common surnames in the country as a whole. What differs is the share: Washington, Jefferson and Booker are carried mostly by Black families.

Why are so many African Americans named Washington?

The records do not give one reason. Many freedpeople chose the surname for themselves after emancipation, and Booker T. Washington wrote that he picked it as a schoolboy when a teacher asked for his last name. By the 2000 census about nine in ten Americans named Washington were Black.

Did freed people take the names of former slaveholders?

Some did, and many did not. Freedmen's Bureau records, pension files and interviews with formerly enslaved people describe families who kept a surname they had used privately for years, families who took the name of an earlier slaveholder or of a parent, and people who chose an entirely new name such as Freeman. A shared surname alone is never proof of a link to a particular plantation.

Where do names like Prioleau, Batiste and Pettway come from?

They are regional. Prioleau and Manigault are French Huguenot names from the South Carolina Lowcountry, where Gullah Geechee families carry them today. Batiste, Metoyer and Guillory come from French-speaking Louisiana, and Pettway is the name of a former plantation at Gee's Bend, Alabama, that many of the community's families still bear.

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All 500 African American last names