In 1980, nearly three in four Americans said their families were originally German, English or Irish.

By 2000, according to a new analysis, the proportion who said their families hailed from those countries had dwindled to about one in three.

Therefore, in 20 years, Immigration (and Birth Rate) has reduced the English,Irish,German majority from 75% to a minority of 33%.

For the first time, more Americans now describe their ancestry as African-American than English, more as Mexican than Italian...

Immigration is changing America's face, but not necessarily its name. When the Census Bureau unveils its list of most common surnames later this year, Smith is expected to remain in first place, as it has for at least half a century.

"Smith is the ultimate catchall for linguistic naturalization," Justin Kaplan and Anne Bernays wrote in "The Language of Names."It takes in Schmidt, Schmitt, Schmitz, Smed, Szmyt, Schmeider, Smidnovic, Seppanen, Fevre, Kalvaitis, Kovars, Haddad, McGowan, and other variants that in their original language mean someone who works with metal."

Many foreigners were given the name by immigration officials when they arrived, or they legally adopted it themselves to sound more American. In addition, millions of Americans named Smith are descendants of slaves who took their masters' name.

The new list, drawn from the 2000 census, is expected to include Hispanic surnames among the top 10 for the first time. (In 1990, Garcia, Martinez and Rodriguez were among the top 25.)

The potential for more non-Anglo-Saxon last names among the most common is growing. In 1980, nearly three in four Americans said their families were originally German, English or Irish.

By 2000, according to a new analysis, the proportion who said their families hailed from those countries had dwindled to about one in three.

For the first time, more Americans now describe their ancestry as African or African-American than English, more as Mexican than Italian and nearly as many Vietnamese as Cuban. But no group grew more in the 1990s than those who described their ancestry only as "American" -- up to 20 million in 2000 from 12 million in 1990.

Smith still most common U.S. name
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