The GIFFORD surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	19,171	1716	0.007	71
United States (1880 census)	7,483	808	0.015	150
Change since 1880	+11688	-908	-0.008	-79
Other Countries
Australia	750	2172	0.005	46
United Kingdom	2,786	2233	0.006	61

Top States for GIFFORD by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
New York	1,459	1235	0.008	77
California	1,426	2204	0.004	42
Florida	1,139	1800	0.007	71
Ohio	1,081	1227	0.010	95
Texas	974	2396	0.005	47
Top States for GIFFORD by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Maine	340	747	0.027	267
Wyoming	98	533	0.020	198
Idaho	216	759	0.017	167
Massachusetts	949	926	0.015	149
Utah	316	943	0.014	142

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

Classification and Origin of GIFFORD

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Location or Geographical Feature

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

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	405	2.11
White (Hispanic)	322	1.68
Mixed Race	274	1.43
Native American/Alaskan	123	0.64
Asian/Pacific	92	0.48
White (Caucasian)	17,956	93.66

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

Meaning of GIFFORD in historical publications

GIFFORD. GIFFARD. The old historical Gifl'ards of Normandy and England descended from the De Bollebecs, who were connected by marriae with Richard I., Duke of Noi-mandy. Walter, son of Osborne de Bollebec, though surnamed " Giffard," or " the Liberal," seems also to have been conservatwe in the acquisition and retention of lands; for he got not only the fair domain of Longueville, near Dieppe, from Eichard II. of Normandy, vho created him Count de Longueville, but also the Earldom of Buckingham, with above a hundred manors in various counties of England, from William I., whom he had accompanied to the Conquest of this country. In Leland's time there were four "notable houses" of Gifibrd remaining in England, in the cos. of Devon, Southampton, Staflbrd, and Buckingham. At the present time the only one of these existing is the Staffordshire family, whose ancestor married the heiress of Corbosone, temp. King Stephen, and thus became Lord of Chillington, which has ever since been the abode of his posterity. Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men of England.

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 GIFFORD

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as GIFFORD.

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.