Downey

25,382 people in the United States were counted with the surname Downey in the 2020 census, making it the 1,362nd most common in the country. That is about one person in 11,800.

By the numbers

People: 25,382
Rank: 1,362nd
How common: 1 in 11,800
Per 100,000: 8.5

Where the name comes from

Irish surname from a reduced form of McEldowney or Muldowney.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 85.5%
Black, not Hispanic 6.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.4%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called Downey

Robert Downey Jr. (born 1965)American actor
Robert Downey Sr. (1936–2021)American filmmaker and actor
Roma Downey (born 1960)Irish actress and Emmy nominated producer and author from Derry, Northern Ireland
Susan Downey (born 1973)American film producer
Brian Downey (born 1951)Irish drummer
Sheridan Downey (1884–1961)American politician
Mark Downey (born 1996)Irish road and track cyclist
John G. Downey (1827–1894)Irish-American politician and California Governor

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

Surnames like Downey

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.