# Bear (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bear/  
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 | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 8,252 |
| US rank (2010) | 4,308 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 37,415 people |
| Change since 2000 | +7.6% (7,672 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an English surname, related to bear * As a German surname, spelling variant of Baer and Bahr

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bear 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) | 78% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.9% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 4.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 11% |
| Two or more races | 2.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bear in the United States.

## People named Bear

- Greg Bear, American writer best known for science fiction (1951–2022)
- Emily Bear, American composer and pianist

## Similar surnames

Berry, Barr, Baer, Bair, Bahr, Bare, Beer, Behr, Beery, Baur, Beier, Bier.

## 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.