Most common surnames in Nigeria

This table shows the 100 most common surnames in Nigeria, ranked by number of bearers. Data comes from official censuses and civil registries.

#	Surname	Bearers	Share
1	Ibrahim	1.871.538	4%
2	Abubakar	1.685.287	3.6%
3	Aliyu	1.342.157	2.9%
4	Mohammed	1.284.727	2.8%
5	Abdullahi	1.209.146	2.6%
6	Musa	1.198.170	2.6%
7	Usman	1.097.599	2.4%
8	Akpan	1.052.412	2.3%
9	Adamu	946.424	2%
10	Bello	916.188	2%
11	Yusuf	828.836	1.8%
12	Sunday	795.638	1.7%
13	Muhammed	763.011	1.6%
14	Isah	741.897	1.6%
15	Umar	724.943	1.6%
16	Sani	719.750	1.6%
17	John	704.140	1.5%
18	Salisu	677.293	1.5%
19	Lawal	660.856	1.4%
20	Udo	598.464	1.3%
21	Adebayo	595.396	1.3%
22	Hassan	582.565	1.3%
23	Ojo	559.743	1.2%
24	Jimoh	543.791	1.2%
25	Muhammad	534.741	1.2%
26	Umaru	525.916	1.1%
27	Ajayi	523.094	1.1%
28	Garba	508.756	1.1%
29	Okon	495.231	1.1%
30	Emmanuel	479.503	1%

31	Samuel	474.905	1%
32	Joseph	468.616	1%
33	James	465.619	1%
34	Saidu	452.437	1%
35	Rabiu	446.354	1%
36	Yakubu	440.035	0.9%
37	Ali	439.116	0.9%
38	Haruna	429.954	0.9%
39	Eze	420.880	0.9%
40	Audu	413.605	0.9%
41	Dauda	410.220	0.9%
42	Balogun	401.855	0.9%
43	Shehu	400.725	0.9%
44	Peter	380.139	0.8%
45	Muhammadu	368.193	0.8%
46	Yahaya	364.889	0.8%
47	Azeez	364.365	0.8%
48	Adeyemi	360.849	0.8%
49	Idris	347.801	0.7%
50	Ahmed	339.870	0.7%
51	Afolabi	333.175	0.7%
52	Bassey	329.677	0.7%
53	Chukwu	326.509	0.7%
54	Daniel	325.649	0.7%
55	Idowu	322.081	0.7%
56	Okoro	315.810	0.7%
57	David	314.344	0.7%
58	Kabiru	311.575	0.7%
59	Salami	311.000	0.7%
60	Igwe	307.549	0.7%

61	Sule	304.540	0.7%
62	Salihu	296.694	0.6%
63	Taiwo	295.502	0.6%
64	Kalu	281.700	0.6%
65	Nwankwo	279.915	0.6%
66	Lawan	275.792	0.6%
67	Dahiru	274.404	0.6%
68	Nuhu	269.942	0.6%
69	Shuaibu	267.641	0.6%
70	Isa	266.249	0.6%
71	Aminu	265.919	0.6%
72	Mustapha	265.260	0.6%
73	Alabi	264.818	0.6%
74	Johnson	262.522	0.6%
75	Etim	257.028	0.6%
76	Moses	256.033	0.6%
77	Ogbonna	255.438	0.6%
78	Alhaji	250.622	0.5%
79	Nura	249.606	0.5%
80	Udoh	247.230	0.5%
81	Tijani	246.877	0.5%
82	Adeniyi	245.575	0.5%
83	Nasiru	244.901	0.5%
84	Adeleke	243.956	0.5%
85	Amadi	238.262	0.5%
86	Bala	232.715	0.5%
87	Yunusa	225.220	0.5%
88	Okafor	225.084	0.5%
89	Bukar	222.358	0.5%
90	Suleiman	221.910	0.5%

91	Abu	220.321	0.5%
92	Nwachukwu	218.001	0.5%
93	Babatunde	216.205	0.5%
94	Effiong	211.989	0.5%
95	Magaji	211.765	0.5%
96	Sanni	211.753	0.5%
97	Adekunle	209.704	0.5%
98	Nweke	206.701	0.4%
99	Okorie	205.924	0.4%
100	Paul	204.728	0.4%

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FAQs

What are the most common surnames in Nigeria?

According to our official census data, the most common surname in Nigeria is Ibrahim, with 1.871.538. registered bearers. This table shows the 100 most frequent surnames in the country.

How many different surnames are registered in Nigeria?

Our database contains hundreds of surnames with a presence in Nigeria. This table shows the 100 most frequent.

How often is this data updated?

The data is updated periodically from official censuses and civil registries of the country.

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