The BUNYAN surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	676	32161	0	2
United States (1880 census)	271	15417	0.001	5
Change since 1880	+405	-16744	+N/A	-3
Other Countries
Australia	290	5373	0.002	18
United Kingdom	1,756	3276	0.004	38

Top States for BUNYAN by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
New York	91	21668	0.000	5
California	80	29791	0.000	2
Pennsylvania	63	23596	0.001	5
Florida	61	27657	0.000	4
Illinois	41	33447	0.000	3
Top States for BUNYAN by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Alaska	14	7648	0.002	22
Kansas	25	13035	0.001	9
Hawaii	9	12680	0.001	7
West Virginia	12	10424	0.001	7
Montana	5	24489	0.001	6

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

Classification and Origin of BUNYAN

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

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

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	456	67.46
Black/African American	155	22.93
Native American/Alaskan	19	2.81
Asian/Pacific	16	2.37
White (Hispanic)	16	2.37
Mixed Race	14	2.07

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

Meaning of BUNYAN in historical publications

(origin: Welsh, Celtic, and Gaelic.) From Bunan, a squat, short person.

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

BUNYAN. Nomen venerabile! Although associated in sound Avith that pedal excrescence, a h(nnwn,—so calculated to hinder the Progress of a Pilgrim 1— this surname is in reality derived from the Welsh Ab Kuion, the sou of Enion, a personal name. So Bevan from Ab Evan, Bithell from Ab Ithell, &c. From Benyon to Bunyan, the transition is easy and natural. The Biinyans were a Gipsy race.

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 BUNYAN

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as BUNYAN.

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.