If you are like me, on a regular basis, if there are places that you frequent that ask for your name, it is also not a surprise when you are then prompted to answer, 'what is your date of birth?' Or you are asked for your phone number, address or some other form of verification. Why? Because it is highly likely that you share a name with countless other people in this area.

One of my favorite conversations with coworkers, acquaintances or someone you just met is to learn their last name, followed by are you related to so and so? Then to find out you actually are! Six degrees of separation is real! If you happen to share the same last name with someone from this area, more than likely you are distant cousins, or he/she used to be married to your sister's friend's mother's uncle or something crazy like that.

Curiousity hit me. So what are the most common names in Midland and Odessa? Do I have the same last name as the majority of the people I see at the grocery store, doctor or perhaps someone I work with? I did some research and the results were not at all surprising. According to forebears.com here are the results:

TOP 10 LAST NAMES IN ECTOR COUNTY:

  1. Rodriguez
  2. Hernandez
  3. Garcia
  4. Martinez
  5. Smith
  6. Ramirez
  7. Sanchez
  8. Carrasco
  9. Jones
  10. Johnson

TOP 10 LAST NAMES IN MIDLAND COUNTY:

  1. Smith
  2. Rodriguez
  3. Hernandez
  4. Johnson
  5. Martinez
  6. Garcia
  7. Brown
  8. Sanchez
  9. Williams
  10. Jones

TOP 10 LAST NAMES IN TEXAS:

1. Smith

2. Garcia

3. Rodriguez

4. Johnson

5. Williams

6. Hernandez

7. Jones

8. Brown

9. Gonzalez

10. Lopez

LOOK: The most popular biblical baby names

To determine the most popular biblical baby names, Stacker consulted the name origin site Behind the Name and the Social Security Administration's baby names database then ranked the top 50 names from Behind the Name's Biblical Names origins list of 564 names, based on how many babies had been given these names in 2019. Click through to find out which biblical names have stood the test of time.
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