The HALES surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	7,743	4238	0.003	29
United States (1880 census)	1,645	3530	0.003	33
Change since 1880	+6098	-708	0	-4
Other Countries
Australia	1,266	1312	0.008	77
United Kingdom	5,170	1219	0.011	113

Top States for HALES by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Utah	1,022	215	0.046	458
North Carolina	923	1322	0.011	115
California	541	5184	0.002	16
Texas	508	4209	0.002	24
Florida	378	5197	0.002	24
Top States for HALES by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Utah	1,022	215	0.046	458
North Carolina	923	1322	0.011	115
Mississippi	310	1356	0.011	109
Alaska	54	1476	0.009	86
Idaho	86	2103	0.007	66

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

Classification and Origin of HALES

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 HALES 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 HALES 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 HALES in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Black/African American	751	9.7
White (Hispanic)	120	1.55
Mixed Race	113	1.46
Native American/Alaskan	33	0.43
Asian/Pacific	25	0.32
White (Caucasian)	6,701	86.54

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

Meaning of HALES in historical publications

(origin: Local) From a village in Gloucestershire, and also a town in Norfolk, England. In Cor. Br., it signifies low, level lands washed by a river or the sea; a moor. Playfair says, "The word Hales is a compound one, being formed of the Saxon Hale or Heile, strong, healthy, and ley, etc. Others derive it from Halig, Saxon, holy.

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

HALES. A town in Norfolk. Roger de Halys in 19 Hemy II. gave a tenement which he possessed in that place to the x\bbey of Baungej\ From him the Haleses of Woodchurch and Bekesbourne, co. Kent, and of Coventry, baronets, are presumed to have sprung. See Burke's Ext. Barts.

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 HALES

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as HALES.

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.