The history of your name

The KEITH surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 46,747 663 0.017 173
United States (1880 census) 9,714 619 0.019 194
Change since 1880 +37033 -44 -0.002 -21
Other Countries
Australia 800 2030 0.005 49
United Kingdom 3,656 1708 0.008 80
Top States for KEITH by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Texas 3,548 723 0.017 170
California 3,204 1030 0.009 95
Florida 2,400 834 0.015 150
Tennessee 2,241 384 0.039 394
Ohio 2,188 575 0.019 193
Top States for KEITH by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Kentucky 1,774 328 0.044 439
Tennessee 2,241 384 0.039 394
Alabama 1,747 396 0.039 393
Oklahoma 1,206 360 0.035 349
South Carolina 1,271 504 0.032 317

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

Classification and Origin of KEITH

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From given name or forename

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

Classification Total Percent
White (Hispanic) 753 1.61
Mixed Race 729 1.56
Native American/Alaskan 486 1.04
Asian/Pacific 243 0.52
White (Caucasian) 37,945 81.17
Black/African American 6,591 14.1

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

Meaning of KEITH in historical publications

(origin: Local) From the parish and lands of Keith, in Banffshire, Scotland. The name Keith is said to be derived from the Gaelic Gaoth, wind, pronounced somewhat similarly to Keith. The old village and kirk are called Arkeith, which may be a corruption of the Gaelic Ard Gaoth, signifying "high wind," which corresponds to its locality, which is peculiarly exposed to gusts of wind. In some old charters, Keith is written Gith, which still more resembles Gaith. I think the name is derived from the Welsh Caeth, a place surrounded, shut up, inclosed, a deep hollow, a strait. The root of the word is the Welsh Cau, to close, to shut up. Concerning this family, the traditional account is, that they came from Germany in the reign of the Emperor Otho, and from the principality of Hesse, from which they were expelled in some revolution. The first person of this family of whom our oldest historians take notice, is Robert De Keith, to whom Malcom II., King of Scotland, gave the barony of Keith, in East Lothian, as a reward for killing Camus, a Danish general, who then invaded Scotland with a numerous army. The battle was fought at Barry, seven miles from Dundee, where an obelisk, called Camus' stone, still preserves the memory of the victory, and it is said the king, dipping his three fingers in the blood of the general, stroked them along the field of the Scotch champion's shield, to whom, besides the landed estate before mentioned, he gave the dignity of Great Marshal of Scotland.

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


KEITH. Several parishes and places in Scotland bear this name, which seems to be a Celtic descriptive term ( Caeth) signifying ' confined or narrow.' The place from which the ancient family of Keith, hereditary Earls-Marshal of Scotland from 1010, derive their surname, is in the parish of Humbie, at the south-western extremity of Haddingtonshire. The district is still known as Keith-Marshall, though the estate has long passed away from the family. This is a sufficient origin of both name and familj to satisfy ordinary curiosity, but the inventive genius of Scottish genealogists goes much further.

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 KEITH

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as KEITH.

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 KEITH

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