Clark

Clark is the 28th most common surname in the United States, shared by 539,661 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 554.

By the numbers

People: 539,661
Rank: 28th
How common: 1 in 554
Per 100,000: 180.6

Where the name comes from

Origin an occupational name

From Old English clerc (“clergyman; learned man”), whence also clerk.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 72.0%
Black, not Hispanic 18.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.4%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.9%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Clark

Helen Clark (born 1950)Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008
Blake Clark (born 1946)American stand-up comedian
Jim Clark (1936–1968)British racecar driver
Mary Higgins Clark (1927–2020)American author of suspense novels
Petula Clark (born 1932)British singer and actress
Laurel Clark (1961–2003)NASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy Captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist
Wesley Clark (born 1944)United States Army general and 2004 Democratic Party presidential candidate
Joe Clark (born 1939)16th Prime Minister of Canada

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

Surnames like Clark

Also a first name

Clark has been given to 51,205 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1961. 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.