Townsend
66,493 people in the United States were counted with the surname Townsend in the 2020 census, making it the 492nd most common in the country. That is about one person in 4,495.
By the numbers
- People
- 66,493
- Rank
- 492nd
- How common
- 1 in 4,495
- Per 100,000
- 22.3
Where the name comes from
. From Middle English toun (“hamlet, village”) + ende (“end”), referring to a dweller at the outskirts of a village.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Who bears the name
How people with the surname Townsend described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:
Notable people called Townsend
- Andros Townsend (born 1991)English association football player
- Devin Townsend (born 1972)Canadian singer, guitarist and record producer
- Taylor Townsend (born 1996)US female tennis player
- Sue Townsend (1946–2014)English writer and humorist
- Stuart Townsend (born 1972)Irish actor
- William Cameron Townsend (1896–1982)American missionary
- Andy Townsend (born 1963)Irish footballer
- Peter Townsend (1914–1995)British flying ace
People named Townsend with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Surnames like Townsend
Also a first name
Townsend has been given to 882 American babies as a first name since 1914, peaking in 2025. 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.