The propagation of surface acoustic waves (SAW) in multilayered structures is studied by using Laguerre polynomials. Field distributions and velocities are obtained easily by this simple and noniterative method. Formulations are given for open‐ and short‐circuit boundary conditions. The SAW velocity of a ZnO film on a Si substrate is calculated and the result is compared against other calculations from the literature. Numerical results are also given for GaAs/AlGaAs multilayered structures.