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The ERSKINE surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 5,079 6203 0.002 19
United States (1880 census) 1,254 4501 0.003 25
Change since 1880 +3825 -1702 -0.001 -6
Other Countries
Australia 513 3139 0.003 31
United Kingdom 2,433 2512 0.005 53
Top States for ERSKINE by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
California 484 5856 0.001 14
Michigan 415 2806 0.004 42
Texas 379 5375 0.002 18
Florida 328 6034 0.002 21
New York 264 7377 0.001 14
Top States for ERSKINE by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Maine 147 1631 0.012 115
West Virginia 109 2201 0.006 60
Vermont 30 3284 0.005 49
Utah 102 2805 0.005 46
Delaware 33 4203 0.004 42

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

Classification and Origin of ERSKINE

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Location or Geographical Feature

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the ERSKINE 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 ERSKINE 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 ERSKINE in the USA

Classification Total Percent
Black/African American 549 10.81
White (Hispanic) 111 2.19
Mixed Race 77 1.52
Native American/Alaskan 35 0.69
Asian/Pacific 16 0.32
White (Caucasian) 4,291 84.49

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

Meaning of ERSKINE in historical publications

Some writers deduce this family from a noble Florentine who came to Scotland in the reign of Kenneth II. It is said, in the reign of Malcolm II., a Scotchman of high distinction having killed with his own hand Enrique, one of the Danish generals, at the battle of Murthill, cut off his head, and with the bloody dagger in his hand showed it to the king, and in the Gaelic language said Eriskyne, "upon the knife," alluding to the head and dagger; and in the same language also said, "I intend to perform greater actions than what I have done." Whereupon, King Malcolm imposed upon him the surname of Eriskine, and assigned him for his armor-bearings a hand holding a dagger, with "Je pense plus" for a motto, which has continued to be the crest and motto of this family.

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


ERSKINE. The name of this ancient and noble Scottish family is derived from the barony of Erskine on the Clyde, in Pienfrewshire, and it was first assumed by Henry of Erskine, about the year 1220.

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 ERSKINE

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as ERSKINE.

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 ERSKINE

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