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The BAILEY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 265,916 66 0.099 986
United States (1880 census) 55,050 66 0.11 1,101
Change since 1880 +210866 0 -0.011 -115
Other Countries
Australia 12,742 80 0.078 779
United Kingdom 63,679 65 0.139 1,386
Top States for BAILEY by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Texas 19,281 99 0.092 925
California 15,974 155 0.047 472
Florida 15,436 76 0.097 966
Ohio 13,462 48 0.119 1,186
Georgia 12,667 46 0.155 1,547
Top States for BAILEY by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
West Virginia 5,276 16 0.292 2,918
Alabama 9,305 43 0.209 2,092
Delaware 1,397 43 0.178 1,783
Tennessee 10,105 49 0.178 1,776
South Carolina 6,748 60 0.168 1,682

Notes

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called BAILEY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called BAILEY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called BAILEY in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a BAILEY by picking someone at random in West Virginia than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of BAILEY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Occupational Name

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the BAILEY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the BAILEY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of BAILEY in the USA

Classification Total Percent
White (Caucasian) 198,825 74.77
Black/African American 56,215 21.14
Mixed Race 4,334 1.63
White (Hispanic) 3,856 1.45
Asian/Pacific 1,064 0.4
Native American/Alaskan 1,622 0.61

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the BAILEY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of BAILEY in historical publications

A name of office; a corruption of Bailiff, which is derived from the French bailler, to deliver. A municipal officer in Scotland corresponding to an alderman.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.


BAILEY. BAILY. 1. From Bailli, in the arrondissement of Neufchatel ; Bailli in that of Dieppe, in Normandy; Bailey, a township in Lancashire ; or Bailie, a township in Cumberland. 2. Another form of bailiff, a title of office applied in many ways under our feudal and municipal laws, 3. A name given to the courts of a castle formed by the spaces between the circuits of walls or defences which surround the keep. Gloss. Arch.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.


Similar names to BAILEY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as BAILEY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.

Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.

Potential typos for BAILEY

The following words are slight variants of BAILEY that are likely to be possible typos or misspellings in written material.