Porter
156,720 people in the United States were counted with the surname Porter in the 2020 census, making it the 165th most common in the country. That is about one person in 1,907.
By the numbers
- People
- 156,720
- Rank
- 165th
- How common
- 1 in 1,907
- Per 100,000
- 52.4
Where the name comes from
Origin an occupational name
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Who bears the name
How people with the surname Porter described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:
Notable people called Porter
- George Porter (1920–2002)British chemist
- Cole Porter (1891–1964)American composer and songwriter
- Rodney Robert Porter (1917–1985)English biochemist and Nobel laureate
- Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist
- Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920)American novelist
- Michael Porter (born 1947)American engineer and economist
- Edwin Stanton Porter (1870–1941)American film pioneer
- Montel Vontavious Porter (born 1973)American professional wrestler
People named Porter with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Surnames like Porter
Also a first name
Porter has been given to 21,801 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2015. 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.