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The surname Arnett

A surname, carried by 16,499 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex A653

Arnett: #2,206 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#10,001Dubon Arnett #2,206, 16,499 people Arnett: #2,206 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Arnett #2,206, 16,499 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Arnett is more common than 98.6% of them.

Origin

A surname.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 16,499 people named Arnett in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 18,713 Americans. That is up 2.9% since 2000, when the Census counted 16,027.

#2,206
rank among US surnames
16,499
people in 2010
5.6
per 100,000 Americans
+2.9%
change since 2000 (was #2,075)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#2,197Giordano16,56918,634
#2,198Pappas16,55918,645
#2,199Henning16,55718,647
#2,200Schilling16,54618,660
#2,202Duff16,53618,671
#2,203Carrera16,53318,675
#2,204Burkhart16,52618,682

Who is named Arnett

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

86% of people named Arnett identified as white (not Hispanic), 8.7% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.2% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 86%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 8.7%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.2%
  • Two or more races 2.1%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Arnetts

2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Peter Arnett
    American journalist (1934–2025)
  • Jon Arnett
    American football player, 1935–2021

Notable Arnetts come mostly from New Zealand (1) and the United States (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Arnett

Arnett has the Soundex code A653, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code A653.

Questions

How common is the surname Arnett?
16,499 people in the United States had the surname Arnett in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 18,713 Americans. It ranked 2,206th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Arnett?
In the 2010 Census, 86% of people named Arnett identified as white (not Hispanic), and 8.7% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Arnett?
Peter Arnett, American journalist (1934–2025), followed by Jon Arnett.
Where is the surname Arnett most common?
Wikidata records people named Arnett in New Zealand and the United States.
Is the surname Arnett getting more or less common?
More common. 16,027 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 16,499 in 2010, up 2.9%.