Is Your Last Name One of the 25 Most Common Last Names in Boise?

Depending on what your last name is, it may not be all that uncommon to run into somebody in the Treasure Valley that shares the same name. How likely is it to happen, though? Pretty darn likely if your name is on this list! 

Growing up, I had a last name that would trip up substitute teachers, track and field officials and basically anyone who was reading it for the first time. It's Croatian and I'm not even sure my family pronounces it correctly, to be honest. When I started working on-air in radio, I dropped it completely because it was a mouthful. Outside of my family, I've never met someone with the same last name.

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For fun, I tried typing my maiden name into a website called Forebears, a genealogy website that organizes a library of names from around the world geographically and tells you how common that last name is in certain countries, states, counties and cities. Based on their records, my last name was the 1,055,483rd most common last name in the world. When their records for the United States were last updated in 2014, there were only 38 of us in the country. When I broke it down into the Ohio county I grew up in, I realized I was related to at least 40% of the people they said at our last name there.

It was FASCINATING to look through the information they've put together from birth/death records from around the state and other public records sources. Curious where YOUR last name stacks up? These are the 25 most common last names in Boise.

Don't live in Boise? They got similar data for Meridian, Eagle and other parts of the Treasure Valley. It's fascinating to see the little changes from town to town!