# Ball (surname)

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

An English surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 66,059 |
| US rank (2010) | 508 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 4,674 people |
| Change since 2000 | -14.8% (77,561 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Multiple theories and origins. * From a short form of the Middle English given name Baldwin. * A toponymic surname for a person that lives near a knoll or rounded hill (i.e. somewhere shaped like a ball). * From the Old Norse given name Balle. * A habitational surname for a person from Ball, Cornwall, from Cornish Pelen.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Ball 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) | 82% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 12% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.0% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Ball in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Australia.

## People named Ball

- Lucille Ball, American actress (1911–1989)
- Alice Augusta Ball, African American chemist (1892–1916)
- Alan Ball, American screenwriter
- Wes Ball, American film director
- Lloy Ball, American volleyball player
- Albert Ball, British aviator killed in WWI
- Marcia Ball, American blues singer and pianist
- Jimmy Ball, athletics competitor (1903–1988)
- Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player
- George Ball, American diplomat (1909-1994)
- Bobby Ball, American racecar driver (1925-1954)
- Catie Ball, American swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, former world record-holder, college swimming coac

and 20 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Bell, Beal, Bail, Bull, Beall, Ballew, Ballou, Bill, Balogh, Bale, Boll, Baily.

## 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.