George

At the 2020 census, 127,488 Americans bore the surname George — 230th out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 2,345.

By the numbers

People: 127,488
Rank: 230th
How common: 1 in 2,345
Per 100,000: 42.7

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

Name of an early saint, from Middle English George, from Latin Geōrgius, from Ancient Greek Γεώργῐος, from γεωργός (“farmer, earth worker”), from γῆ (“earth”) (combining form γεω-) + ἔργον (“work”).

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 61.3%
Black, not Hispanic 18.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 10.1%
Hispanic or Latino 4.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.9%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 2.2%

Notable people called George

David Lloyd George (1863–1945)Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922
Henry George (1839–1897)American political economist and journalist
Stefan George (1868–1933)German poet, editor, and translator
Boy George (born 1961)British musician
Paul George (born 1990)American basketball player
Melissa George (born 1976)Australian actress
Finidi George (born 1971)Nigerian footballer and manager
Gladys George (1904–1954)American actress

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

Surnames like George

Georges

Also a first name

George has been given to 1,497,260 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.