Dempsey

Dempsey is the 1,330th most common surname in the United States, shared by 25,900 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 11,500.

By the numbers

People: 25,900
Rank: 1,330th
How common: 1 in 11,500
Per 100,000: 8.7

Where the name comes from

Origin Irish

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Díomasaigh (“descendant of Díomasach”), a byname deriving from díomasach (“proud, arrogant”).

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 85.7%
Black, not Hispanic 5.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.7%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Surnames like Dempsey

Also a first name

Dempsey has been given to 4,799 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.