My name isn't a common one (though it is highly alliterative) but exactly how common can surnames get?

Chances are a lot of us have met someone else with our last names at some point. We've probably heard, "Are you related to those (surname)?" At which point it's an awkward "um nope". Or "ugh yes that's my idiot cousin".

If you have an unusual last name, you've probably heard it pronounced 57 different ways in your lifetime by teachers doing roll calls, announcers, and friends trying to sound it out. It's especially true if your last name comes from a different language. You've probably thought of ways to explain it like "rhymes with", "sounds like", etc.

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How Unique Is Your Name?

While I have what is quite possibly the most common first name given to females across the planet, I have still met others with my last name but never a combination of the two. My first name has no unnecessary 'y's', 'x's', or 'z's' like a lot of baby names nowadays so how will I ever be ~unique~?

via GIPHY

What's The Most Common Last Name In Iowa?

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Ancestry.com says that the top three most common surnames in Iowa are:

  1. Smith
  2. Williams
  3. Anderson

Sounds like an old English writer does it not? Ancestry looked at the top three most common surnames in every state. What's not surprising is that Smith is in the top three of nearly every state.

Other common ones that pop up on the map include Miller, Brown, and Jones. It's the Southwestern part of the U.S. that has variety, with common names like Garcia, Hernandez, Chavez, and Martinez.

Here's Ancestry's map:

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Do any of these surprise you? Are any of them your own last name?

I Turned The Quad Cities Into AI Art

To get the AI pictures all I had to do was type in the name of the city, and the state, the algorithm did the rest.

All these photos are computer generated, and at first glance, it looks pretty good... some more than others, but the longer you look the more you notice how weird each one is.

These are all 5 cities in the QC. To start I typed in "Quad Cities" to see the results

Top 10 Highest-Rated Restaurants In Davenport According To Yelp

To determine the top 10 highest-rated restaurants in Davenport, we turn to Yelp. Yelp tells us exactly which restaurants in Davenport people think are the best. If you're looking for the best places to eat in Davenport according to ratings and reviews from people in the Quad Cities, this is the list for you.

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