# Bancroft (surname)

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

A habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 5,404 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,315 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 57,133 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.3% (5,335 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbænˌkɹɔft/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English bēan (“bean”) + croft (“enclosed field”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bancroft 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) | 92% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 2.5% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 2.0% |
| Two or more races | 1.3% |

## Where

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

## People named Bancroft

- Anne Bancroft, American actress (1931–2005)
- George Bancroft, American actor (1882–1956)
- Ann Bancroft, American explorer
- Richard Bancroft, British Archbishop of Canterbury
- Bronwyn Bancroft, Australian artist, administrator and book illustrator (born 1958)
- Hubert Howe Bancroft, American historian and ethnologist (1832–1918)
- Dave Bancroft, American baseball player, coach, manager (1891–1972)
- Frederic Bancroft, American historian (1860-1945)
- Effie Bancroft, British actress and manager (1840–1921)

## Similar surnames

Bangert, Bankert, Baumgartner, Bunker, Bumgarner, Baumgardner, Banker, Bumgardner, Baumgart, Baumgarten, Bongiorno, Bangura.

## 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.