Powell

216,911 people in the United States were counted with the surname Powell in the 2020 census, making it the 105th most common in the country. That is about one person in 1,378.

By the numbers

People: 216,911
Rank: 105th
How common: 1 in 1,378
Per 100,000: 72.6

Where the name comes from

Origin Welsh

The anglicized form of Welsh ap Hywel (“son of Hywel”). Related. Sometimes also associated with Paul.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 64.2%
Black, not Hispanic 26.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Powell

Colin Powell (1937–2021)American general and diplomat
Cecil Frank Powell (1903–1969)British physicist
Asafa Powell (born 1982)Jamaican sprinter
William Powell (1892–1984)American actor
Jerome Powell (born 1953)American financier
Mike Powell (born 1963)Athletics competitor, long jumper
Enoch Powell (1912–1998)British politician
John Wesley Powell (1834–1902)American geologist

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

Surnames like Powell

Also a first name

Powell has been given to 1,491 American babies as a first name since 1883, peaking in 1919. 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.