How it works
These rich last names are 77 real US surnames of three kinds: 25 old fortunes such as Vanderbilt and Astor, 14 names whose origin means riches or gold, and 40 money words such as Sterling and Florin.
Read the full guide
Old money last names
Old fortunes holds 25 names. Each card names the one person who made or held the fortune, the years that person lived and the trade as the person's encyclopedia article words it: Carnegie is Andrew Carnegie, 1835 to 1919, steel. Nobody named lived past 1950.
Meanings and money words
Means rich, gold or luck keeps names whose dictionary origin holds such a word: Mooney goes back to an Irish word for rich, Abbondanza to the Italian for abundance. Money words are surnames spelled like a coin or a bank word, such as Florin, Farthing and Sovereign; the name itself often began as something else, and the card says so.
- The census band tells how rare a name is: Morgan top 1,000, Astor far below.
- Rich people last names are often plain ones: Field, Hopkins and Morgan each stand for a fortune here.
Questions and answers
What last names sound rich?
That is a matter of taste, so this list keeps to facts: surnames tied to a fortune on record, such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and Carnegie, surnames whose origin means gold or riches, and surnames that are money words, such as Sterling.
Do wealthy last names mean a wealthy family?
No. A surname says nothing about the people who carry it today. At least 100 people share each name here, and a money word usually began as something else: Nickel is an old spelling of a form of Nicholas.
Which last names mean rich or gold?
Gold, Golden, Goldwyn and Goulden go back to gold. Mooney comes from an Irish word for rich, and Dhanraj from Hindi words for wealth and rule. Each card gives the opening of the name's dictionary entry.
Are these rich last names real?
Yes. Every name is in the Census Bureau's 2020 file of last names carried by 100 people or more in the United States. Nothing is invented; only the draw is random.