The FAIRFAX surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	1,433	17970	0.001	5
United States (1880 census)	810	6479	0.002	16
Change since 1880	+623	-11491	-0.001	-11
Other Countries
Australia	110	13184	0.001	7
United Kingdom	507	8767	0.001	11

Top States for FAIRFAX by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Virginia	175	4968	0.002	25
Pennsylvania	142	11441	0.001	12
North Carolina	131	6303	0.002	16
California	117	21721	0.000	3
South Carolina	82	5654	0.002	20
Top States for FAIRFAX by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Virginia	175	4968	0.002	25
Washington DC	13	4683	0.002	23
South Carolina	82	5654	0.002	20
North Carolina	131	6303	0.002	16
Maryland	79	7894	0.001	15

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

Classification and Origin of FAIRFAX

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 FAIRFAX 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 FAIRFAX 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 FAIRFAX in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	748	52.2
Black/African American	620	43.27
White (Hispanic)	31	2.16
Mixed Race	26	1.81
Asian/Pacific	Less than 100	Insignificant
Native American/Alaskan	Less than 100	Insignificant

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

Meaning of FAIRFAX in historical publications

FAIRFAX. A-Sax. fcegr and feax, fair-haired. The same as the Latin Flavus, the Fr. Blond, &c. " Fax and vex are the same, signifying hair. Hence jMatthew of Westminster calleth a comet, which is Stella crinita, vexed .star A-Sax.majcf? steorra ; aud this family had their name from beautiful bushy hair. I confess I find in Florilegus, writing of the Holy War, " Primimrbellum Cliristianoriun fuit apud pontem Pliarfax fluminis ; but cannot concur with them who hence derive the name of this family." Fuller, (Worthies of England, iii, -iU,) who adds, that in his time (two hundred years ago) twenty generations of Fairfaxes had resided on one spot, at Walton, co. York — a rare instance of long territorial possession by one name and family. The existing representative of this ancient race is Lord Fairfax, an American by birth and parentage, who, with the same republican principles which actuated his great ancestor, prefers a quiet life at Woodburue in Maryland, to a seat in the House of Peers.

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 FAIRFAX

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as FAIRFAX.

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.