The DEXTER surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	9,660	3390	0.004	36
United States (1880 census)	3,633	1690	0.007	73
Change since 1880	+6027	-1700	-0.003	-37
Other Countries
Australia	314	4992	0.002	19
United Kingdom	2,766	2258	0.006	60

Top States for DEXTER by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
California	760	3842	0.002	22
Michigan	677	1605	0.007	68
Florida	659	3045	0.004	41
New York	551	3420	0.003	29
Massachusetts	488	1812	0.008	77
Top States for DEXTER by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Vermont	94	1119	0.015	154
Rhode Island	151	965	0.014	144
New Hampshire	175	1075	0.014	142
Maine	155	1523	0.012	122
Idaho	114	1522	0.009	88

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

Classification and Origin of DEXTER

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 DEXTER 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 DEXTER 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 DEXTER in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Mixed Race	131	1.36
White (Hispanic)	112	1.16
Native American/Alaskan	68	0.7
Asian/Pacific	49	0.51
White (Caucasian)	8,271	85.62
Black/African American	1,029	10.65

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

Meaning of DEXTER in historical publications

A contraction of De Exeter, from the city of Exeter, in Devonshire, England; anciently written Excester, from Exe, the name of the river on which it is situated, and cester, a camp or town, for the derivation of which see Chester.

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

DEXTER. Possibly from Lat. dexter, in the sense of lucky, fortunate — the iiiii\\Qi\s oi fbmter ; but more likely a contraction of De Exeter, from the chief town of Devonshire.

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 DEXTER

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as DEXTER.

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.