Wilkins

Wilkins is the 586th most common surname in the United States, shared by 55,955 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 5,342.

By the numbers

People: 55,955
Rank: 586th
How common: 1 in 5,342
Per 100,000: 18.7

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

In most cases, the surname derives from the Middle English Wilkin, from Will, diminutive of William, + -kin (“small”). However, in the case of a formidable number of those that bear the surname 'Wilkins', the name derives from an earlier form Welsh Wilkyn, itself from Middle English Wylcolyna or Witcoline, from Latin Wintona, compare Winton.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 61.3%
Black, not Hispanic 29.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Wilkins

Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004)New Zealand-born English physicist and biologist
Dominique Wilkins (born 1960)American basketball player
John Wilkins (1614–1672)Secretary of the Royal Society and Bishop of Chester
Ray Wilkins (1956–2018)English footballer and manager
Mac Wilkins (born 1950)American athletics competitor
Hubert Wilkins (1888–1958)Australian polar explorer
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930)American novelist, short story writer, poet, children's author
Louis Wilkins (1882–1950)athletics competitor

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

Surnames like Wilkins

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.