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

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'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.