Burke

Burke is the 256th most common surname in the United States, shared by 118,342 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 2,526.

By the numbers

People: 118,342
Rank: 256th
How common: 1 in 2,526
Per 100,000: 39.6

Where the name comes from

Origin Anglo-Norman

From an Anglo-Norman pronunciation of burg.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 83.2%
Black, not Hispanic 8.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.4%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called Burke

Edmund Burke (1729–1797)Anglo-Irish statesman, political theorist and conservative philosopher
Tarana Burke (born 1973)American civil rights activist
Raymond Leo Burke (born 1948)American Catholic cardinal
Billie Burke (1884–1970)American stage and film actress
Solomon Burke (1940–2010)American singer
Thomas Burke (1875–1929)American sprinter
Billy Burke (born 1966)American actor, musician
Alexandra Burke (born 1988)British singer and songwriter

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

Surnames like Burke

Also a first name

Burke has been given to 4,188 American babies as a first name since 1881, peaking in 2013. 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.