Last Names
What are the ten most common U.S. surnames (last names)?
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]How accurate was your prediction?
Is your surname on this list?
If you could change your last name to any last name you wanted, what would your new surname be?
What most surprised you about this list?
What is the big story this chart tells?
What ethnic group has made the biggest increase in this list over the past three decades?
Overall, what are the most important changes to this list over the past three decades?
Why do you think that is?
What is a consequence of this?
How will the growing Hispanic demographic affect U.S. politics in the future?
Are these changes good news or bad news?
How do you imagine this list will change for the 2020 census?
What is the next ethnicity/nationality that you think will be added to this list and when will that happen?
Imagine that there was a census in the year 1490 in what is today the Unite States (and yes, I know, the US wasn't a country then, the first census didn't happen until 1790, and they couldn't speak English back then, blah, blah, blah. This is hypothetical!) What do you imagine those names would have looked like? And what would those names have looked like in 1700?
Is it possible to stop time, to make things never change?
If we built a beautiful huge wall between the U.S. and Mexico what would that do to the Hispanic population in the U.S.?*
Bonus Chart
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]