Howard

253,434 people in the United States were counted with the surname Howard in the 2020 census, making it the 81st most common in the country. That is about one person in 1,179.

By the numbers

People: 253,434
Rank: 81st
How common: 1 in 1,179
Per 100,000: 84.8

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

Medieval personal name from Middle English Howard, Howarde, from Old Norse Hávarðr, from hár (“high”) + varðr (“guard”). In some cases a variant of Heward, from Old French Huard.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 61.7%
Black, not Hispanic 28.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Howard

John Howard (born 1939)Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007
Ron Howard (born 1954)American film director, producer, and actor
Catherine Howard (1523–1542)fifth wife of Henry VIII of England
Robert E. Howard (1906–1936)American author
Bryce Dallas Howard (born 1981)American actress and filmmaker
Tim Howard (born 1979)American soccer player
Terrence Howard (born 1969)American actor
James Newton Howard (born 1951)American composer and music producer

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

Surnames like Howard

Also a first name

Howard has been given to 348,342 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.