Watts

Watts is the 361st most common surname in the United States, shared by 85,754 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 3,486.

By the numbers

People: 85,754
Rank: 361st
How common: 1 in 3,486
Per 100,000: 28.7

Where the name comes from

Origin a given name

Patronymic surname from the Middle English given name Wat, derived from Walter, equivalent.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 65.9%
Black, not Hispanic 25.0%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Watts

Naomi Watts (born 1968)English actress
Charlie Watts (1941–2021)British drummer
Alan Watts (1915–1973)British American author and lecturer
Jon Watts (born 1981)American film director, producer and screenwriter
George Frederic Watts (1817–1904)British painter and sculptor
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)English hymnwriter, theologian and logician
Quincy Watts (born 1970)Athletics competitor, sprinter, 400 metres runner
Peter Watts (born 1958)Canadian biologist and sci-fi author

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

Surnames like Watts

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.