South

South is the 3,334th most common surname in the United States, shared by 10,580 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 28,300.

By the numbers

People: 10,580
Rank: 3,334th
How common: 1 in 28,300
Per 100,000: 3.5

Where the name comes from

By proprialization from south.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 84.3%
Black, not Hispanic 7.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.1%
Hispanic or Latino 3.1%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called South

Joe South (1940–2012)American singer, songwriter and guitarist
James South (1785–1867)British astronomer
Melanie South (born 1986)British female tennis player
Stephen South (born 1952)British racing driver

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

Surnames like South

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.