Potter

68,997 people in the United States were counted with the surname Potter in the 2020 census, making it the 471st most common in the country. That is about one person in 4,332.

By the numbers

People: 68,997
Rank: 471st
How common: 1 in 4,332
Per 100,000: 23.1

Where the name comes from

Origin an occupational name

From Middle English Potter, English, Dutch, and north German surname, from the noun pot.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 85.7%
Black, not Hispanic 5.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.2%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called Potter

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943)British children's writer and illustrator
Paulus Potter (1625–1654)Dutch painter
Graham Potter (born 1975)English association football player and manager
Ryan Potter (born 1995)American actor
Monica Potter (born 1971)American actress
Sally Potter (born 1949)English film director and screenwriter
Carol Potter (born 1948)American actress
Lauren Potter (born 1990)American actress

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

Surnames like Potter

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.