Arthur

Arthur is the 1,264th most common surname in the United States, shared by 27,204 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 11,000.

By the numbers

People: 27,204
Rank: 1,264th
How common: 1 in 11,000
Per 100,000: 9.1

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

From the name of the legendary king, from Middle English Arthure, from Medieval Latin Arthurus, probably from Middle Welsh arth (“bear”).

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 72.5%
Black, not Hispanic 17.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.9%
Hispanic or Latino 3.3%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 2.0%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.1%

Notable people called Arthur

Bea Arthur (1922–2009)American actress and comedienne
Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502)Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall
Arthur (born 2003)Brazilian association football player

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

Surnames like Arthur

Also a first name

Arthur has been given to 551,930 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1921. 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.