The POINDEXTER surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	11,201	2958	0.004	42
United States (1880 census)	2,718	2237	0.005	54
Change since 1880	+8483	-721	-0.001	-12
Other Countries
Australia	0			0
United Kingdom	5	32581	0	0

Top States for POINDEXTER by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Virginia	1,108	852	0.016	157
North Carolina	953	1387	0.012	118
Texas	767	3175	0.004	37
California	764	4117	0.002	23
Indiana	615	1260	0.010	101
Top States for POINDEXTER by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Virginia	1,108	852	0.016	157
Washington DC	76	909	0.013	133
North Carolina	953	1387	0.012	118
Oklahoma	388	1310	0.011	112
Indiana	615	1260	0.010	101

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

Classification and Origin of POINDEXTER

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 POINDEXTER 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 POINDEXTER 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 POINDEXTER in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Mixed Race	283	2.53
White (Hispanic)	164	1.46
Native American/Alaskan	92	0.82
Asian/Pacific	28	0.25
White (Caucasian)	6,136	54.78
Black/African American	4,499	40.17

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

Meaning of POINDEXTER in historical publications

(origin: Fr.) The same as Hotspur, or spur the steed; poin being derived from pungo, to pierce, to prick, and dexter, right, as opposed to left; a word expressive of readiness of limbs, adroitness, expertness, and skill.

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

POINDEXTER. " This name does not signify ' the right hand,' as might easily be imagined, but is an old Norman name, signifying Spur the Steed, and analogous to Hotspur. It comes from two old words, Avhich 'Wace often uses in the Roman de Ron; the first meaning 'to spur,' from the Latin??fwo; the second, 'a steed or courser,' in French destrier, Ital. dcstrlere." Talbot's English Etymologies.

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 POINDEXTER

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as POINDEXTER.

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.

Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.