West

West is the 127th most common surname in the United States, shared by 189,360 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 1,578.

By the numbers

People: 189,360
Rank: 127th
How common: 1 in 1,578
Per 100,000: 63.4

Where the name comes from

Origin Middle English

In most senses and as an English surname, by proprialization from west.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 72.5%
Black, not Hispanic 17.8%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called West

Mae West (1893–1980)American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer
Rebecca West (1892–1983)British writer, journalist, literary critic, and feminist
Jerry West (1938–2024)American basketball player and executive
Adam West (1928–2017)American actor
Dominic West (born 1969)British actor
Billy West (born 1950)American voice actor
Shane West (born 1978)American actor, musician and songwriter
Gladys West (1930–2026)American mathematician

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

Surnames like West

Also a first name

West has been given to 3,720 American babies as a first name since 1880, 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.