last name
"last-name" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“last name” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of surname, a person's family name.
Corpus desk
Index EN-last-name · last name · English
last name · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | last name |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “last name” in English
Rare enough to double-check
last name is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for last name, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is last name, spelled L-A-S-T- -N-A-M-E.
Definition
- 1Synonym of surname, a person's family name.
- 2The last element of a full name, particularly when it could also be given name in East Asian and other cultural traditions.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how last name appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In a structure typical for East Asia cultures, last names are usually used as given names. It usually differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a family or clan) who have a common family name
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.