Ambrose

At the 2020 census, 16,202 Americans bore the surname Ambrose — 2,192nd out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 18,400.

By the numbers

People: 16,202
Rank: 2,192nd
How common: 1 in 18,400
Per 100,000: 5.4

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

From Latin saints' name Ambrosius, from Ancient Greek ἀμβρόσιος (“immortal, divine”). Compare Athanasius.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Ambrose described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 77.7%
Black, not Hispanic 13.0%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called Ambrose

Ambrose (339–397)Roman theologian and Bishop of Milan (c. 340–397)
Lauren Ambrose (born 1978)American actress
Stephen E. Ambrose (1936–2002)American historian and writer
Efe Ambrose (born 1988)Nigerian footballer
Darren Ambrose (born 1984)English association football player
Marcos Ambrose (born 1976)Australian racing driver
Thierry Ambrose (born 1997)Guadeloupean footballer
Curtly Ambrose (born 1963)Antiguan former cricketer

People named Ambrose with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Ambrose

Also a first name

Ambrose has been given to 10,911 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2021. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.