Durham

Durham is the 817th most common surname in the United States, shared by 41,287 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 7,240.

By the numbers

People: 41,287
Rank: 817th
How common: 1 in 7,240
Per 100,000: 13.8

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

From Old English Dūnholm, which is from dun (“hill”) + Old Norse holm (“islet, island”). In order to get from Dunholm to Durham, two major processes had to take place. Firstly, the n at the coda of the first syllable, dun, underwent dissimilation. Specifically, by influence of the m in the coda of the following syllable (holm), said n denasalised and lenited to the oral r, thus dur.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 70.0%
Black, not Hispanic 21.3%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.8%
Hispanic or Latino 2.9%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Durham

Edith Durham (1863–1944)British artist
Judith Durham (1943–2022)Australian singer and musician
Jimmie Durham (1940–2021)American artist
Rhea Durham (born 1978)American model

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

Surnames like Durham

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.