York

At the 2020 census, 50,675 Americans bore the surname York — 656th out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 5,898.

By the numbers

People: 50,675
Rank: 656th
How common: 1 in 5,898
Per 100,000: 17.0

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

From Middle English York, Ȝork, from Old Norse Jórk, Jórvík, from Old English Eoforwīċ, from Latin Eborācum, ultimately from cel-bry-pro *Eβrọg (compare Welsh Efrog, from owl Caer Ebrauc, from cel-bry-pro *Eβrọg). Displaced Middle English Everwik, from the Old English.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 82.8%
Black, not Hispanic 7.9%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.3%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.9%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called York

Elizabeth of York (1466–1503)Queen of England
Princess Beatrice of York (born 1988)elder daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson
Michael York (born 1942)British actor
Princess Eugenie of York (born 1990)younger daughter of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Sarah Ferguson
Susannah York (1939–2011)English film, stage and television actress
Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (1411–1461)Duke of York
Alvin York (1887–1964)United States Army Medal of Honor recipient
Dick York (1928–1992)American radio, stage, film, and television actor

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

Also a first name

York has been given to 966 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1971. 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.