Kemp

44,426 people in the United States were counted with the surname Kemp in the 2020 census, making it the 762nd most common in the country. That is about one person in 6,728.

By the numbers

People: 44,426
Rank: 762nd
How common: 1 in 6,728
Per 100,000: 14.9

Where the name comes from

As an English, Scottish, Dutch, and north/Low German surname, from the noun kemp (“champion, warrior”), similar to Kampf.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 69.5%
Black, not Hispanic 21.7%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.0%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Kemp

Brian Kemp (born 1963)American politician
Shawn Kemp (born 1969)American basketball player
Jack Kemp (1935–2009)American football player and politician
Lindsay Kemp (1938–2018)British mime
Troy Kemp (born 1966)Bahamian high jumper
Peter Kemp (1877–1965)British swimmer and water polo player
Ross Kemp (born 1964)English actor, author and journalist
Will Kemp (born 1977)English actor

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

Surnames like Kemp

Also a first name

Kemp has been given to 1,306 American babies as a first name since 1898, peaking in 1957. 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.