Washington

Washington is the 148th most common surname in the United States, shared by 172,075 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 1,737.

By the numbers

People: 172,075
Rank: 148th
How common: 1 in 1,737
Per 100,000: 57.6

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

Washington (the town in Tyne and Wear, northeast England): probably from the Old English place name Hwæssingatūn. It was attested in 1096 as Wasindone. There are other theories; more on Wikipedia.

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

Who bears the name

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

Black, not Hispanic 83.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 6.0%
White, not Hispanic 5.8%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called Washington

George Washington (1732–1799)Founding Father and first U.S. president
Denzel Washington (born 1954)American actor
Martha Washington (1731–1802)First Lady of the United States from 1789 to 1797
Kerry Washington (born 1977)American actress
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
Dinah Washington (1924–1963)American singer, songwriter, pianist
John David Washington (born 1984)American football player and actor
Isaiah Washington (born 1963)American actor

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

Surnames like Washington

Also a first name

Washington has been given to 2,644 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1921. 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.