Johnson
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Patronymic from the forename John, widely spread in Scotland; early forms include Johanis and filz Johan, with Walter Jones Sone recorded in 1298
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/dʒɑnsən/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Johnson is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 2nd most common surname.
- KPNorth Korea≈1 in 93(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 172
- ISIceland≈1 in 189
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Johnson itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #31 (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 671 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 93 (inferred from the name graph)
1,932,812 people, 2010
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
North Korea, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Patronymic from the forename John, widely spread in Scotland; early forms include Johanis and filz Johan, with Walter Jones Sone recorded in 1298. Gaelic form MacIan.
Sources 1
- Scottish Surnames
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Johnson counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #2 | 1,932,812 | 1 in 172 | 1.9M | Johnson | 671 |
| GB United Kingdom | #6 | ≈310,000 est. | ≈1 in 213 | listed | Johnson | 404 |
| NG Nigeria | #36 | ≈310,000 est. | ≈1 in 695 | — | Johnson | 140 |
| KP North Korea | #5 | ≈280,000 est. | ≈1 in 93 | — | Johnson | 7 |
| EG Egypt | #123 | ≈210,000 est. | ≈1 in 494 | — | Johnson | 42 |
| NO Norway | #711 | 38,438as Johnsen | 1 in 142 | 38K | Johnson | 88 |
| IS Iceland | #5 | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 189 | 2 | Johnson | 51 |
1,932,812 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Johnson is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, son of John; first attested John Jonessone 1287 AD i (Sr)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In English, Penis.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Eyvind, Swedish author (Nobel
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In German, Patronym zu John/Johann ‘Sohn des John’; mit -son/-sson und Schreibvarianten ss/ß, h, n. Bearer count: 1026.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
In English, Patronymic meaning 'son of John'.
as a nameTên Họ Người Việt Nam
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Ben Jonsonb. 1572GBnot in their usual nameEnglish playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)
- Samuel Johnsonb. 1709GBEnglish writer and lexicographer (1709–1784)
- Jack Johnsonb. 1878USAmerican boxer (1878–1946)
- Eyvind Johnsonb. 1900SESwedish writer (1900–1976)
- Philip Johnsonb. 1906USAmerican architect (1906–2005)
- Lady Bird Johnsonb. 1912USFirst Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969
- Boris Johnsonb. 1964GBPrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022
- Dwayne Johnsonb. 1972USAmerican actor and professional wrestler (born 1972)
- Ashley Johnsonb. 1983USAmerican actress
- Dakota Johnsonb. 1989USAmerican actress (born 1989)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 122 sources across 64 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.9M | #2 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.9M | #2 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.9M | #2 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 1.7K | #585 |
| NO Norway | SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891) | 2025 | 862 | — |
Reference works 8
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Johnson come from?
- Patronymic from the forename John, widely spread in Scotland; early forms include Johanis and filz Johan, with Walter Jones Sone recorded in 1298. Gaelic form MacIan. Recorded by Scottish Surnames.
- How common is the name Johnson?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,932,812 people named Johnson in 2010, about 1 in 172 residents.
- How common is Johnson compared with other names?
- In the United States, Johnson is the 2nd most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.
- In which country does Johnson have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 1.9 million people named Johnson, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled johnson.
- What does the name Johnson mean?
- Recorded meaning: Patronymic from the forename John, widely spread in Scotland; early forms include Johanis and filz Johan, with Walter Jones Sone recorded in 1298.
- How do you pronounce Johnson?
- A machine transcription gives /dʒɑnsən/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Johnson?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/johnsonThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Johnson” — the 2nd most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.