Priest

Priest is the 2,515th most common surname in the United States, shared by 13,964 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 21,400.

By the numbers

People: 13,964
Rank: 2,515th
How common: 1 in 21,400
Per 100,000: 4.7

Where the name comes from

From Middle English Prest.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 84.7%
Black, not Hispanic 6.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Priest

Damian Priest (born 1982)Puerto Rican-American professional wrestler
Christopher Priest (1943–2024)British author
Maxi Priest (born 1961)British reggae/pop singer
Cherie Priest (born 1975)American writer
Graham Priest (born 1948)British philosopher, born 1948
Pat Priest (born 1936)American actress
Steve Priest (1948–2020)Bassist for Sweet

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

Surnames like Priest

Also a first name

Priest has been given to 561 American babies as a first name since 1971, peaking in 2019. 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.