The DEMPSTER surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	2,442	11753	0.001	9
United States (1880 census)	564	8764	0.001	11
Change since 1880	+1878	-2989	0	-2
Other Countries
Australia	894	1829	0.005	55
United Kingdom	3,033	2043	0.007	66

Top States for DEMPSTER by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Louisiana	266	2242	0.006	60
California	251	10163	0.001	7
New York	170	10985	0.001	9
Florida	142	12350	0.001	9
Pennsylvania	136	10717	0.001	11
Top States for DEMPSTER by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Louisiana	266	2242	0.006	60
South Dakota	24	5483	0.003	32
Montana	27	5002	0.003	30
Iowa	83	5167	0.003	28
Wyoming	11	6048	0.002	22

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

Classification and Origin of DEMPSTER

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Occupational Name

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

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	180	7.37
White (Hispanic)	58	2.38
Mixed Race	51	2.09
Asian/Pacific	23	0.94
Native American/Alaskan	9	0.37
White (Caucasian)	2,121	86.86

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

Meaning of DEMPSTER in historical publications

Anciently an arbitrator or officer of justice in the Scottish courts.

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

DEMPSTER. A judge ; the ofllcer of a court who pronounces doom. A-Sax. dcman, to judge. Jamieson. The Isle of Man is divided into two districts, over each of which a deemster still presides. Before the Union, there was an officer in the Scottish senate called the Dempster of Parliament, probably corresponding with the English " Speaker." This office was hereditary in the ancient family of Dempster of Auchterless, and hence their surname. In the old M.S. poem called Cursor Mundi, quoted by Halliweil, we read : —

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 DEMPSTER

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as DEMPSTER.

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.