Ash

20,463 people in the United States were counted with the surname Ash in the 2020 census, making it the 1,716th most common in the country. That is about one person in 14,600.

By the numbers

People: 20,463
Rank: 1,716th
How common: 1 in 14,600
Per 100,000: 6.9

Where the name comes from

Origin Middle English

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 78.1%
Black, not Hispanic 12.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.3%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called Ash

Timothy Garton Ash (born 1955)British historian and author
Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001)entrepreneure
Erica Ash (1977–2024)American actress and comedian
Dayna Ash (born 1901)Lebanese poet and cultural activist
Daniel Ash (born 1957)English musician, songwriter and singer
Lauren Ash (born 1983)Canadian actress and comedian

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

Surnames like Ash

Also a first name

Ash has been given to 2,680 American babies as a first name since 1975, peaking in 2023. 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.