The SCOTT surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	420,091	36	0.156	1,557
United States (1880 census)	105,247	29	0.21	2,105
Change since 1880	+314844	-7	-0.054	-548
Other Countries
Australia	22,881	30	0.14	1,400
United Kingdom	97,571	29	0.212	2,124

Top States for SCOTT by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	32,429	48	0.156	1,555
California	31,451	66	0.093	929
Florida	25,698	42	0.161	1,608
Ohio	19,540	30	0.172	1,721
Georgia	17,927	33	0.219	2,190
Top States for SCOTT by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Carolina	11,319	24	0.282	2,821
Alabama	11,774	34	0.265	2,648
Delaware	2,009	24	0.256	2,564
Louisiana	11,033	34	0.247	2,469
Oklahoma	8,217	26	0.238	2,381

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

Classification and Origin of SCOTT

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: Scotland

Language of origin: Gaelic

Ethnic origin: Celtic

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: From given name or forename

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

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	262,977	62.6
Black/African American	135,521	32.26
Mixed Race	7,982	1.9
White (Hispanic)	7,058	1.68
Native American/Alaskan	4,831	1.15
Asian/Pacific	1,722	0.41

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

Meaning of SCOTT in historical publications

A native of Scotland. Nennius uses both Scythœ and Scotti indifferently. Strabo considers Scythœ and Nomades synonymous terms. The original word in Ossian is Scuta, which literally signifies "restless wanderer," hence the propriety of the name Scuite or Scot.

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

SCOTT. SCOT. This ranks among the most prevalent of British surnames, almost sixty coats of arms being assigned to it, while the London Directory shows about 200 traders in the metropolis so denominated. In records of early date, it is usually written Le Scot, implying a native of Scotland. Now, as the tendency of North Britons to ' come south ' is proverbial, we do not wonder at the commonness of the name in England ; but why many families who never lived out of Scotland should be called Scott, is not so readily explained. The Duke of Buccleuch, the head of the surname in that country, traces his pedigree to Richard le Scot, of Murdieston, co. Lanark, one of the Scottish barons, who swore fealty to our Edward I., 1296. The name exists in records of earlier date, but the claim set up by some zealous genealogists for a Norman extraction has no foundation. M. de Gerville remarks : — " It is somewhat curious tliat this Duke of Buccleuch seclvs for his name in Normaud), and pretends that the original appellation was VEscott!" Mem. Soc. Ant. Normandie, 1S25.

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 SCOTT

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as SCOTT.

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.