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The surname Acton

An English place surname, carried by 4,892 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈæktən/ 2 syllables Soundex A235

Acton: #6,874 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Acton #6,874, 4,892 people Acton: #6,874 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Acton #6,874, 4,892 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Acton is more common than 95.8% of them.

Origin

English origin

From Old English āc (“oak”) + tūn (“farm, town, homestead”); compare the doublet Aughton.

Acton is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 4,892 people named Acton in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 63,112 Americans. That is up 4.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 4,666.

#6,874
rank among US surnames
4,892
people in 2010
1.7
per 100,000 Americans
+4.8%
change since 2000 (was #6,674)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#6,870Weinberger4,89763,048
#6,872Veach4,89663,061
#6,873Harbaugh4,89563,074
#6,874Liddell4,89263,112

Who is named Acton

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

92% of people named Acton identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.8% as Black (not Hispanic).

  • White (not Hispanic) 92%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.7%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 1.8%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 1.5%
  • Two or more races 1.5%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Actons

7 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Loren Acton
    Astronaut, born 1936
  • Brian Acton
    American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of WhatsApp, born 1972
  • Amy Acton
    American physician and politician (born 1966)
  • Bud Acton
    American basketball player, born 1942
  • Will Acton
    American-born Canadian ice hockey player, born 1987
  • Ben Acton
    Australian ice hockey player (1927–2020)
  • Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton
    British baronet (1801-1837)

Notable Actons come mostly from the United States (5), Australia (1) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Acton

Acton has the Soundex code A235, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code A235.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Acton come from?
From Old English āc (“oak”) + tūn (“farm, town, homestead”); compare the doublet Aughton.
How common is the surname Acton?
4,892 people in the United States had the surname Acton in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 63,112 Americans. It ranked 6,874th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Acton?
In the 2010 Census, 92% of people named Acton identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Acton?
Loren Acton, astronaut, followed by Brian Acton.
Where is the surname Acton most common?
Wikidata records people named Acton in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
How do you pronounce Acton?
Acton is /ˈæktən/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Acton?
Acton is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Acton getting more or less common?
More common. 4,666 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 4,892 in 2010, up 4.8%.