Stirling

2,795 people in the United States were counted with the surname Stirling in the 2020 census, making it the 10,888th most common in the country. That is about one person in 107,000.

By the numbers

People: 2,795
Rank: 10,888th
How common: 1 in 107,000
Per 100,000: 0.94

Where the name comes from

from enm-esc Strivelin, Strivelyn, likely from Old Irish sreb, srib (“stream”) + linn (“pool, lake”). Cognate with Old French Estrivelin, Middle Welsh Ystriflin.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 89.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.2%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
Black, not Hispanic 2.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.2%

Notable people called Stirling

Lindsey Stirling (born 1986)American violinist, musician, dancer, performance artist, singer and composer
James Stirling (1926–1992)English architect
Robert Stirling (1790–1878)clergyman, engineer, inventor of the Stirling engine
James Stirling (1692–1770)Scottish mathematician (*1692 – †1770)
Rachael Stirling (born 1977)British actress
Linda Stirling (1921–1997)American model and actress
S. M. Stirling (born 1953)Canadian-American author, primarily of speculative fiction
James Stirling (1791–1865)British naval officer and colonial administrator

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

Surnames like Stirling

Also a first name

Stirling has been given to 929 American babies as a first name since 1912, 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.