Kirk

Kirk is the 649th most common surname in the United States, shared by 51,067 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 5,853.

By the numbers

People: 51,067
Rank: 649th
How common: 1 in 5,853
Per 100,000: 17.1

Where the name comes from

Origin Middle English

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 79.6%
Black, not Hispanic 10.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 1.4%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Kirk

Charlie Kirk (1993–2025)American political activist
Justin Kirk (born 1969)American actor
Russell Kirk (1918–1994)American political theorist, moralist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and writer
Mark Kirk (born 1959)American politician
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935–1977)American musician
Oliver Kirk (1884–1960)American boxer
Erika Kirk (born 1988)American businesswoman and podcaster
Norman Kirk (1923–1974)Prime Minister of New Zealand, politician

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

Surnames like Kirk

Also a first name

Kirk has been given to 68,264 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1962. 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.