Knowles
27,231 people in the United States were counted with the surname Knowles in the 2020 census, making it the 1,263rd most common in the country. That is about one person in 11,000.
By the numbers
- People
- 27,231
- Rank
- 1,263rd
- How common
- 1 in 11,000
- Per 100,000
- 9.1
Where the name comes from
Origin Middle English
Topographic surname for someone who lived at the top of a hill, from a genitive or plural form of Middle English knol (“hilltop, hillock”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Who bears the name
How people with the surname Knowles described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:
Notable people called Knowles
- William Standish Knowles (1917–2012)American chemist
- Solange Knowles (born 1986)American singer, songwriter, and actress
- Mark Knowles (born 1971)Bahamian tennis player
- Tina Knowles (born 1954)American businesswoman and fashion designer, mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles
- Durward Knowles (1917–2018)British-Bahamian sailor
- Mark Knowles (born 1984)Australian field hockey player
- Carl Knowles (1910–1981)American basketball player
- Mathew Knowles (born 1952)American music executive, businessman, record producer, and manager
People named Knowles with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Surnames like Knowles
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.