Sykes

Sykes is the 1,291st most common surname in the United States, shared by 26,650 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 11,200.

By the numbers

People: 26,650
Rank: 1,291st
How common: 1 in 11,200
Per 100,000: 8.9

Where the name comes from

Origin Middle English

From Middle English sike (“marshy stream, gutter, ditch”).

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 51.6%
Black, not Hispanic 39.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.3%

Notable people called Sykes

Wanda Sykes (born 1964)American comedian, writer, actress and voice artist
Oliver Sykes (born 1986)British singer and record producer
Mark Sykes (1879–1919)British politician, diplomatic advisor, and traveller
Eric Sykes (1923–2012)English actor and director
John Sykes (1959–2024)British guitarist
Bryan Sykes (1947–2020)British geneticist and science writer
Percy Sykes (1867–1945)British general, diplomat and scholar
Ross Sykes (born 1999)English association football player

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

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.