Polk

Polk is the 1,345th most common surname in the United States, shared by 25,517 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 11,700.

By the numbers

People: 25,517
Rank: 1,345th
How common: 1 in 11,700
Per 100,000: 8.5

Where the name comes from

As a Scottish surname, shortened from Pollock.

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

Who bears the name

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

Black, not Hispanic 46.7%
White, not Hispanic 43.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 1.0%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Polk

James K. Polk (1795–1849)President of the United States from 1845 to 1849
Sarah Childress Polk (1803–1891)First Lady of the United States from 1845 to 1849
Leonidas Polk (1806–1864)Confederate General
Amanda Polk (born 1986)American rower
Oscar Polk (1899–1949)American actor
George Polk (1913–1948)American journalist

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

Surnames like Polk

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.