Hudson

Hudson is the 220th most common surname in the United States, shared by 129,935 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 2,300.

By the numbers

People: 129,935
Rank: 220th
How common: 1 in 2,300
Per 100,000: 43.5

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 64.1%
Black, not Hispanic 26.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Hudson

Kate Hudson (born 1979)American actress and singer
Henry Hudson (1565–1611)English explorer b1565
Jennifer Hudson (born 1981)American singer, actress, model and spokesperson
Rock Hudson (1925–1985)American actor
Ernie Hudson (born 1945)American actor and former U.S. Marine
Oliver Hudson (born 1976)American actor
Hugh Hudson (1936–2023)British director
Matthew Hudson-Smith (born 1994)British sprint athlete

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

Surnames like Hudson

Also a first name

Hudson has been given to 116,169 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2025. 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.