Archer

Archer is the 1,027th most common surname in the United States, shared by 33,513 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 8,919.

By the numbers

People: 33,513
Rank: 1,027th
How common: 1 in 8,919
Per 100,000: 11.2

Where the name comes from

Origin Anglo-Norman, from an occupational name

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 76.4%
Black, not Hispanic 13.5%
Hispanic or Latino 4.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Archer

Jeffrey Archer (born 1940)English author and former politician
Anne Archer (born 1947)American actress
Gem Archer (born 1966)British musician
Colin Archer (1832–1921)Norwegian naval architect/shipbuilder of Scottish descent
Cameron Archer (born 2001)English association football player
Margaret Archer (1943–2023)British sociologist
William Archer (1856–1924)Scottish critic and translator
Tasmin Archer (born 1963)British singer-songwriter

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

Surnames like Archer

Also a first name

Archer has been given to 31,803 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2025. 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.