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Many African Americans who were slaves were not given a last name, only a first name. If they were given a last name, it was the name of their master's. Therefore, Phillis Wheatley's name tells a lot about the time in which she lived, and gives clues to her life. Wheatley, the first Black poet published in America, was named Phillis after the name of the slave ship Phillis that brought her from Africa to America. Wheatley was the last name of her master and mistress, William and Susannah Wheatley. Unfortunately Phillis never wrote down what her original name was, and so it is lost to us today.

Many slaves didn't receive a last name until they were freed. Sometimes a slave took (or kept) the last name of their former master, or took a common name from the area in which they lived. Some African Americans adopted the names of famous Americans such as Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, or Clay, or from those who helped African Americans at the time, such as the 19th century abolitionist John Brown. According to Stuart Berg Flexner in his book Listening to America, many African Americans took the last name of Howard in honor of General Oliver Otis Howard, who was a Union general in the Civil War and head of the Freedman's Bureau from 1865-1874, and also the founder and early president of Howard University. The name Howard became so popular a name with African Americans at the time, that in the 1980s about one-third of all Howards in the United States were African American.

Listed below are the most common African American surnames in the United States:

1. Johnson (the most common surname for African Americans since 1830)	6. Jackson
2. Brown	7. Davis
3. Smith	8. Harris
4. Jones	9. Robinson
5. Williams	10. Thomas