Common Surnames in the US (2000 Census) and OUR surname (Gowin/Gowan)

We found William Gowin (Goin/Going/Gowan) living in Lunenburg County, VA in 1752. We still don’t know if he was the immigrant, but he married Anester ? and 258 years later they have a prolific family tree in the United States.

Through diligent written genealogy and the use of DNA, we have confirmed that not everyone with the same surname is related – even using surname variants (see other post on this blog)! This is true even when the overall population of that surname within the U.S. is very small. Through early census takers, we found that siblings would have surname variants from their parents and also from one another. There wasn’t a formal way of writing English adopted in the colonies until after about 1794 when books on English Grammar began circulating and were further taught in the classroom. In some cases, it took another generation before the spelling of a surname was solidified and written the same going forward.

This is certainly true of our own family. The spelling GOWIN was first recorded of William in 1752 although his name was later recorded as GOIN, GOING, GOWING, GOWEN, and GOWAN by those taking census, land records, court documents, etc. In 1810, his family was living in Kentucky as was recorded again as GOWIN. For the most part, it was shortly after this period (sometime before the Civil War) when the family surname remained as GOWIN.

So just how rare is our surname in America? I found an analysis taken from the 2000 U.S. Census that demonstrates just how rare our surname and variants are. According to the 2000 U.S. census the number one name is SMITH followed by JOHNSON, WILLIAMS, BROWN, and JONES. We stack up as follows:

SURNAME / RANK IN U.S. / TOTAL # IN U.S.
GOAN / 56,826 / 336
GOEN / 24,037 / 979
GOENS / 25,945 / 889
GOIN / 10,670 / 2,752
GOINES / 10,123 / 2,929
GOING / 19,618 / 1,272
GOINGS / 8,329 / 3,657
GOINS / 1,498 / 21,872
GOWAN / 10,018 / 2,968
GOWANS / 23,683 / 998
GOWEN / 9,450 / 3,157
GOWENS / 23,167 / 1,028
GOWIN / 15,942 / 1,674
GOWING / 32,743 / 661
GOWINS / 32,302 / 672
TOTAL OF ALL SURNAMES = 45,844

This is out of a total U.S. population in the year 2000 of 281,421,906. I do not have a confirmed relative of our family with any other current surname spelling than GOWIN using DNA or otherwise. By working with other family researchers we have determined that even though our surname and variants are rare, we are not related. DNA has allowed us to differentiate between each of those above.

I have found that the majority of those that do not spell their surname as we do today (GOWIN) are more likely to be distantly related! This is very interesting indeed. I also haven’t been able to find anyone that has a last name of SMITH or McGO__ related to us. Hopefully more males with our surname and variant will continue to test to aid in our research!

Please read the blog "Distribution of Y-DNA Results in our surname" to understand the significance of this analysis.