The HOUSTON surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	54,026	563	0.02	200
United States (1880 census)	11,235	533	0.022	225
Change since 1880	+42791	-30	-0.002	-25
Other Countries
Australia	1,805	901	0.011	110
United Kingdom	8,011	764	0.017	174

Top States for HOUSTON by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	5,765	439	0.028	276
California	4,113	817	0.012	121
Georgia	3,004	342	0.037	367
Florida	2,943	715	0.018	184
Tennessee	2,892	299	0.051	508
Top States for HOUSTON by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Mississippi	1,770	233	0.062	622
Tennessee	2,892	299	0.051	508
Alabama	2,077	350	0.047	467
Georgia	3,004	342	0.037	367
North Carolina	2,756	430	0.034	342

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

Classification and Origin of HOUSTON

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Location or Geographical Feature

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

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Hispanic)	810	1.5
Native American/Alaskan	303	0.56
Asian/Pacific	227	0.42
White (Caucasian)	29,514	54.63
Black/African American	22,107	40.92
Mixed Race	1,064	1.97

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

Meaning of HOUSTON in historical publications

(origin: Local) From the parish of Houston, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. There is an old tradition, that in the reign of Malcolm IV., A.D. 1153, Hugh Padvinan obtained a grant of the barony of Kilpeter, from Baldwin of Biggar, sheriff of Lanark, and hence called Hughstown, corrupted into Houstoun. These Houstons were of great consideration in Renfrewshire.

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

HOUSTON. HOUSTOUN, The ancient knightly family so called originally bore the name of Paduinan from a place in CO. Lanark. In the XII. cent. Hugli de P. acquired the lands of Kilpeter, and built a residence there, to which he gave the

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 HOUSTON

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as HOUSTON.

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.