The FERGUS surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	1,837	14813	0.001	7
United States (1880 census)	296	14441	0.001	6
Change since 1880	+1541	-372	0	+1
Other Countries
Australia	238	6457	0.001	15
United Kingdom	913	5647	0.002	20

Top States for FERGUS by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Illinois	204	6723	0.002	16
Ohio	148	9465	0.001	13
California	140	17883	0.000	4
New York	135	14639	0.001	7
Florida	98	18186	0.001	6
Top States for FERGUS by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Oregon	74	6118	0.002	22
Illinois	204	6723	0.002	16
Alaska	10	10916	0.002	16
Ohio	148	9465	0.001	13
Utah	29	7726	0.001	13

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

Classification and Origin of FERGUS

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

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

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	248	13.5
White (Hispanic)	38	2.07
Mixed Race	21	1.14
White (Caucasian)	1,512	82.31
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 FERGUS surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of FERGUS in historical publications

(origin: Gaelic and Celtic.) A fierce or brave chieftain, from Fear, man, and guth, a voice or word, that is, the man of the word, a commander of an army. Some suppose the first Fergus was so named from Fairghe, the sea, on account of his large navy; others, from his raging like the sea in battle. Feargach, fiery.

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

FERGUS. FEARGUS. A Scottish saint (whence St. Fergus in Aberdeenshire) — Gaelic etymologists deduce the name from fear, a man, and cas, hardiness — energy — a man of hardj'', energetic character.

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 FERGUS

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as FERGUS.

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.