# Bain (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bain/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Scottish Gaelic |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 17,371 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,082 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 17,774 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.1% (16,845 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a Scottish surname, from Scottish Gaelic bàn (“white, fair”), also found in McBain. * As an English surname, from Old English ban (“bone”). Also from bayn (“hospitable”), from Old Norse beinn (“straight”). * As a French surname, from Old French bain (“bath”), from Latin balneum. * As a German surname, spelling variant of Behn.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bain in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 85% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 9.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.1% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.0% |
| Two or more races | 1.9% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bain in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and The Bahamas.

## People named Bain

- Barbara Bain, American actress
- Alexander Bain, British clockmaker
- Andretti Bain, Bahamian sprinter
- Mary Bain, American chess player (1904–1972)
- Edgar Bain, American metallurgist (1891–1971)
- Robin Bain, American actress, writer and director
- George Grantham Bain, American photographer and journalist (1865–1944)

## Similar surnames

Bean, Bayne, Bane, Baney, Ban, Bien, Baine, Boan, Bahn, Bano, Banu, Baiano.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.