From the New York Times:

In U.S. Name Count, Garcias Are Catching Up With Joneses

"Smith remains the most common surname in the United States, according to a new analysis released yesterday by the Census Bureau. But for the first time, two Hispanic surnames — Garcia and Rodriguez — are among the top 10 most common in the nation, and Martinez nearly edged out Wilson for 10th place."

Later in the article:

"Generations ago, immigration officials sometimes arbitrarily Anglicized or simplified names when foreigners arrived from Europe.

'"The movie studios used to demand that their employees have standard Waspy names,' said Justin Kaplan, an historian and co-author of 'The Language of Names.'"

"'Now, look at Renée Zellweger,' Mr. Kaplan said."

Tocqueville observes:

"There's a bit of unintended humor here. The NYT assures us that, until recently, the movie studios insisted on Anglo-Saxon ("Waspy") names. As a sign of progress, look at the success of Rene Zellweger. Zellweger being, well, uh, German. This is obviously a real advance from the days when Otto Preminger, Zero Mostel, Maximilian Schell, and Marlene Dietrich were forced to call themselves Otto Preminger, Zero Mostel, Maximilian Schell, and Marlene Dietrich. Think of the case of poor Yul Brynner!"