Ward

Ward is the 79th most common surname in the United States, shared by 255,767 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 1,169.

By the numbers

People: 255,767
Rank: 79th
How common: 1 in 1,169
Per 100,000: 85.6

Where the name comes from

Origin an occupational name

As an English surname, from the noun ward and related cognates such as warden, guard etc.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 72.5%
Black, not Hispanic 18.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.4%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Ward

Sela Ward (born 1956)American actress, author, and producer
Fred Ward (1942–2022)American actor
Danny Ward (born 1993)Welsh association football player
Stephen Ward (born 1985)Irish association football player
Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910)American abolitionist, social activist, and poet
Bill Ward (born 1948)English drummer
Gemma Ward (born 1987)Australian model and actress
Rachel Ward (born 1957)British actress

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

Surnames like Ward

Also a first name

Ward has been given to 15,124 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1961. 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.