Most common surnames in Nigeria

The top 100 family names, ranked by how many people carry them.

Most common surnames in Nigeria
Rank	Surname	Origin & meaning	People
1	Ibrahim	—	3,310,419
2	Musa	—	3,039,701
3	Abubakar	—	2,800,579
4	Abdullahi	—	2,553,566
5	Mohammed	—	2,338,925
6	Sani	—	2,282,987
7	Adamu	—	2,077,339
8	Usman	—	1,873,607
9	Umar	—	1,870,193
10	Muhammad	—	1,720,605
11	Muhammed	—	1,649,136
12	Aliyu	—	1,342,157
13	Yusuf	—	1,267,014
14	Ali	Arabic · “exalted”	1,145,538
15	Garba	—	1,040,132
16	Bello	—	993,587
17	Haruna	—	966,002
18	Hassan	—	929,412
19	Lawal	—	818,304
20	Aminu	—	778,492
21	Yakubu	—	749,081
22	Isah	—	741,897
23	John	—	725,432
24	Idris	—	725,125
25	Eze	—	683,500
26	Yahaya	—	680,952
27	Salisu	—	677,293
28	Ahmed	—	670,022
29	Sunday	—	640,471
30	Akpan	—	630,901
31	Isa	—	597,051
32	Shehu	—	592,567
33	Amadi	—	586,491
34	Bala	—	553,374
35	Umaru	—	525,916
36	Ahmad	—	514,971
37	Okafor	—	501,755
38	Emmanuel	—	461,777
39	Saidu	—	452,437
40	Rabiu	—	446,354
41	Joseph	—	437,001
42	James	English/Welsh · “from given name James”	430,639
43	Okeke	—	422,988
44	Audu	—	413,605
45	Samuel	—	410,625
46	Dauda	—	410,220
47	Ojo	—	409,473
48	Mustapha	—	408,877
49	Adebayo	—	405,463
50	Okoro	—	405,143
51	Suleiman	—	388,694
52	Sulaiman	—	382,920
53	Baba	—	380,054
54	Okon	—	374,112
55	Abba	—	372,282
56	Muhammadu	—	368,193
57	Peter	—	367,227
58	Chukwu	—	363,525
59	Igwe	—	358,662
60	Udo	—	357,523
61	Ajayi	—	355,435
62	Jimoh	—	341,545
63	Daniel	—	326,018
64	David	French · “from given name David”	324,771
65	Nwachukwu	—	324,146
66	Obi	—	319,999
67	Kabiru	—	311,575
68	Ugwu	—	309,674
69	Nwankwo	—	302,367
70	Sule	—	300,629
71	Salihu	—	296,694
72	Sale	—	294,322
73	Adam	—	282,876
74	Lawan	—	275,792
75	Dahiru	—	274,404
76	Okoye	—	271,553
77	Njoku	—	270,900
78	Nuhu	—	269,942
79	Shuaibu	—	267,641
80	Bassey	—	265,482
81	Okonkwo	—	256,725
82	Ado	—	252,359
83	Yau	—	250,798
84	Alhaji	—	250,622
85	Nura	—	249,606
86	Nasiru	—	244,901
87	Hamza	—	244,349
88	Moses	—	244,167
89	Ogbonna	—	240,920
90	Ayuba	—	239,118
91	Ismail	—	234,252
92	Suleman	—	232,935
93	Nweke	—	227,856
94	Adeyemi	—	227,683
95	Yunusa	—	225,220
96	Bukar	—	222,358
97	Balogun	—	214,931
98	Nwafor	—	214,465
99	Azeez	—	214,078
100	Afolabi	—	213,255

Source: Forebears (non-official). Rankings are updated when the publisher releases new data.

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