These Are the Most Common Last Names Across Michigan

How common is your last name in Michigan? Check the list!

No matter which routes our families took to get here, somehow, we all wound up in the Great Lakes State. Do you have someone in your family who meticulously documents your family tree? I do!

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In my family, my mom is our unofficial genealogist. I’m grateful for all she’s uncovered about our roots, although she does love to go on about relatives I’ve never met, will never meet, or that I didn't even know existed in the first place.

That's not to say I don't love a good episode of PBS' Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. The show features well-known celebrities as they go on a journey to discover the true nature of their family tree. Notable episodes include John Leguizamo learning of his family's ties to Spanish royalty and Sally Field discovering her family came over on the Mayflower.

West Michigan's Most Common Surnames

While Ancestry.com may have revealed the most common last names in Michigan, but as someone from West Michigan’s Dutch-influenced lakeshore, I’d love to see what names top the list here in our neck of the woods.

We're used to hearing things like "Holland", "Van" or "Vander", and "Meijer". According to information from a 2014 census these were once considered the top 8 common Dutch last names in the Grand Rapids area:

• Visser
• DeBoer
• Deyoung
• Vandenburg
• Mulder
• VanDyke
• Dykstra
• DeVries