Data story
The most common surnames in Massachusetts senior classes, town by town
Surname counts for each town's senior classes, 1920s and 1940-45.
A surname count is a quick portrait of a place. In the New Bedford High School classes of 1940–45 the five most common surnames were Sylvia, Medeiros, Silva, Souza and Mello. In Cambridge in the 1920s the top two were Sullivan (38) and Murphy (31); in Brockton, 1940–45, Johnson (38) led, ahead of Anderson, Murphy and Nelson.
- Sylvia (26)New Bedford, 1940–45
- Sullivan (38)Cambridge, 1920s
- Cohen (15)Malden, 1920s
- Smith (35)Springfield, 1940–45
Town by town
| Town and years | Seniors | Distinct surnames per 100 | No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Springfield 1940–45 | 4,571 | 63.5 | Smith (35) | Johnson (24) | Sullivan (23) |
| Somerville 1920–29 | 3,344 | 53.3 | Johnson (21) | Smith (20) | Martin (17) |
| Brockton 1940–45 | 3,106 | 55.2 | Johnson (38) | Anderson (21) | Murphy (19) |
| New Bedford 1940–45 | 2,979 | 57.8 | Sylvia (26) | Medeiros (20) | Silva (20) |
| Cambridge 1920–29 | 2,799 | 56.4 | Sullivan (38) | Murphy (31) | White (16) |
| Salem 1940–45 | 1,648 | 64.8 | McCarthy (11) | O'Brien (10) | Brennan (8) |
| Fitchburg 1920–29 | 1,625 | 65.1 | Sullivan (18) | Smith (12) | Miller (11) |
| Quincy 1934–39 | 1,525 | 62.8 | Smith (21) | Johnson (10) | Anderson (9) |
| Malden 1920–29 | 1,362 | 65.8 | Cohen (15) | Johnson (9) | Smith (9) |
| Newton 1920–28 | 1,301 | 67.9 | Smith (13) | Brown (11) | White (10) |
| Brookline 1923–29 | 1,272 | 67.5 | Smith (11) | Allen (8) | Ford (8) |
| Boston 1940–45 | 1,040 | 78.0 | Sullivan (14) | Murphy (13) | Cohen (10) |
| Medford 1924–29 | 1,037 | 73.7 | Murphy (9) | White (8) | Anderson (7) |
Smith is first in 4 of the 13 groups; Sullivan in 3; Johnson in 2. The leaders are rarely large: the single most common surname is 6.3 to 13.8 seniors per 1,000. Diversity varies more: Boston 1940–45 had 78.0 different surnames per 100 seniors, Somerville in the 1920s 53.3.
New Bedford, then and after
New Bedford is the one place where we can compare two periods of the same school with a usable number of seniors: 678 in the classes of 1930–36 and 2,712 in 1940–45. The five surnames that top the later list (Sylvia, Medeiros, Silva, Souza and Santos) were 2.06% of the earlier classes and 3.47% of the later. In raw counts, Sylvia went from 5 seniors to 26, Souza from 2 to 17, and Santos and Correia from none to 14 and 12. The earlier group is small, so treat it as a sign, not a measurement; these are common Portuguese surnames (Sylvia is a common spelling of Silva), which fits the city’s long-documented Portuguese-speaking communities. We count surnames only and make no inference about any person or family.
How we counted
Surname is the last name as printed, with prefixes kept (Del, Di, Mc, St. stay attached). Only town-and-period groups with 1,000 or more published seniors are ranked (13 groups). Spellings are not merged: Silva and Sylvia, Cote and Cota are separate surnames, as printed.
Each group mixes the schools and years of that town in the period, and the periods differ between towns (the Springfield and Brockton books are almost all 1940–45, Cambridge’s and Malden’s mostly the 1920s), so ranks compare surnames within a town, not between towns.
The New Bedford comparison uses New Bedford High School only. The script is work/stories/s06_surnames.py; a Salem comparison was computed and left out because its earlier group is only two classes.
The scans belong to the libraries that digitised them; each person page links back to its scan. Corrections and removal requests: hello@theclassalbum.com or /rights.
Every surname has its own page, for example Sylvia, Sullivan and Johnson, listing each person with that surname in the yearbooks we have read.
Use these charts
Reporters, librarians, teachers and society newsletters are welcome to use the charts on this page with a link back. Copy the snippet under the chart you want; it carries the credit. Every number can be recomputed from the archive’s data (see “How we counted”), and a reporter who wants a different cut, such as one school or one class year, can ask at hello@theclassalbum.com.
top-surnames-by-town.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/most-common-surnames-in-massachusetts-senior-classes/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/most-common-surnames-in-massachusetts-senior-classes/top-surnames-by-town.png" alt="Most common surnames by town" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/most-common-surnames-in-massachusetts-senior-classes/">The most common surnames in Massachusetts senior classes, town by town</a></p>
change-new-bedford.png
<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/most-common-surnames-in-massachusetts-senior-classes/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/most-common-surnames-in-massachusetts-senior-classes/change-new-bedford.png" alt="New Bedford: top surnames of 1940-45 compared with the 1930s" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a> <p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/most-common-surnames-in-massachusetts-senior-classes/">The most common surnames in Massachusetts senior classes, town by town</a></p>
More data stories
- Boston University or Harvard? Where Massachusetts seniors said they were headed, 1920s-1940s
- The war in the senior class: Massachusetts seniors who named the service, 1939-1945
- Barbara rises, Mildred fades: first names in Massachusetts senior classes, 1920s-1940s
- Dot, Al, Bob and Red: the nicknames in Massachusetts senior classes, 1917-1945
- The streets that sent the most seniors to high school: Cambridge, Brookline, Springfield and four more cities
- Girls, boys and the course of study: who took commercial, college and technical in Massachusetts high schools
- Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks
Numbers come from the archive's own records and are reproducible; see how the archive is made.