The EDWARDS surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	317,070	53	0.118	1,175
United States (1880 census)	65,460	52	0.131	1,309
Change since 1880	+251610	-1	-0.013	-134
Other Countries
Australia	24,363	25	0.149	1,490
United Kingdom	111,386	18	0.243	2,425

Top States for EDWARDS by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	24,551	76	0.118	1,177
North Carolina	22,053	17	0.274	2,740
California	21,725	108	0.064	641
Florida	20,684	54	0.129	1,294
Georgia	14,930	39	0.182	1,824
Top States for EDWARDS by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
North Carolina	22,053	17	0.274	2,740
Mississippi	6,442	38	0.226	2,265
Alabama	9,679	42	0.218	2,176
South Carolina	8,616	43	0.215	2,148
Virginia	13,126	33	0.185	1,854

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

Classification and Origin of EDWARDS

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Wales

Language of origin: Welsh

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From name of parent

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

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	206,603	65.16
Black/African American	95,787	30.21
Mixed Race	5,834	1.84
White (Hispanic)	5,168	1.63
Native American/Alaskan	2,378	0.75
Asian/Pacific	1,268	0.4

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

Meaning of EDWARDS in historical publications

EDWARDS. This name is so common tliat more than two hundred and fifty London traders bear it. In the RegistrarGeneral's List it occupies the twentieth place for frequency, there being for every four Smiths or Joneses about one Edwards, or 25 per cent. Many families of Edwards and Edwardes are of Welsh patrician origin. For example, Edwards of Nanhoron descends from one of the royal tribes of Wales through Sir Griffitli Lloyd and Sir Howell yFwyallt; Edwards of Ness Strange descends from Eiuion Effel, lord of Cynllaeth, co. Montgomery, 1182; Edwards of Old-Court, co. Wicklow, claims from Roderick tlie Great, king of all Wales in 848, through his younger son, Tudwall Glojf or "the lame," whose descendants settled iu Ireland in the XVII. century. It may seem remarkable that such a thoroughly Saxon name should occur so frequently in Welsh families of ancient blood, but it must be remembered that settled surnames do not appear among the Welsh till within the last two or three centuries, long after the prejudices against our early Edwards had passed away. See Edwardes.

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 EDWARDS

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as EDWARDS.

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.