Poe

At the 2020 census, 23,182 Americans bore the surname Poe — 1,502nd out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 12,900.

By the numbers

People: 23,182
Rank: 1,502nd
How common: 1 in 12,900
Per 100,000: 7.8

Where the name comes from

Origin Old Norse

A nickname from Old Norse pái (“peacock”). This surname is also well established in Ireland.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 75.1%
Black, not Hispanic 11.9%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 4.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)American writer and literary critic
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe (1822–1847)wife of Edgar Allan Poe
Fernando Poe Jr. (1939–2004)Filipino actor, film director, and politician
Eliza Poe (1787–1811)mother of Edgar Allan Poe
Lovi Poe (born 1989)Filipino actress and singer
Ted Poe (born 1948)American politician

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

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.