The GREY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	12,338	2691	0.005	46
United States (1880 census)	7,037	860	0.014	141
Change since 1880	+5301	-1831	-0.009	-95
Other Countries
Australia	1,555	1049	0.01	95
United Kingdom	4,945	1267	0.011	108

Top States for GREY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
California	1,351	2623	0.004	40
New York	1,235	1653	0.007	65
Florida	1,053	2191	0.007	66
Pennsylvania	582	2976	0.005	47
Texas	476	4941	0.002	23
Top States for GREY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Washington DC	56	1232	0.010	98
Connecticut	317	1542	0.009	93
Vermont	48	2404	0.008	79
Montana	63	2201	0.007	70
Kentucky	279	2213	0.007	69

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

Classification and Origin of GREY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Nickname

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

Classification	Total	Percent
Native American/Alaskan	373	3.02
White (Hispanic)	320	2.59
Mixed Race	276	2.24
Asian/Pacific	196	1.59
White (Caucasian)	8,361	67.77
Black/African American	2,812	22.79

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

Meaning of GREY in historical publications

GREY. jMost genealogists derive this ancient and noble family from Fulbert, chamljerlain to Eobert, duke of Normandy, who held by his gift the castle of Croy, in Picardy, from Avhence the name is assumed to have been borro\ved. There is liowtAer no evidence for this ; for the pedigree is only traced to Henry de Grey, to whom Eichard Ceeur-de-Lion gave the manor of Thurrock, co. Essex, which manor was subsequently known as Grey's Tliurrock. From the "Recherchcs sur le Domesd." of D'Anisy, it appears proliable that the family came from Grai or Gray, a village near Caen. However this may be, the first settler of the name in England, was clearly Anchitillus Grai, a Domesd. tenant in Oxfordshire.

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 GREY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as GREY.

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.