Waters

65,036 people in the United States were counted with the surname Waters in the 2020 census, making it the 504th most common in the country. That is about one person in 4,596.

By the numbers

People: 65,036
Rank: 504th
How common: 1 in 4,596
Per 100,000: 21.8

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

From the given name Walter + the patronymic suffix -s.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 71.2%
Black, not Hispanic 19.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Waters

Roger Waters (born 1943)English musician, co-founder of Pink Floyd
Muddy Waters (1913–1983)American blues musician
John Waters (born 1946)American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer
Sarah Waters (born 1966)Welsh novelist
Ethel Waters (1896–1977)American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress
Maxine Waters (born 1938)United States Representative from California since 1991
Mark Waters (born 1964)American film director
Crystal Waters (born 1961)American singer-songwriter

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

Surnames like Waters

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.