# Berkeley (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/berkeley/  
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) | 1,322 |
| US rank (2010) | 20,172 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 233,544 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.3% (1,268 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɝkli/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | Barclay, Barclift, Barkley |

## Etymology

From Old English beorc (“birch”) + leah (“meadow, leigh”). Equivalent to birch + -ley (“lea”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Berkeley 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) | 62% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 28% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 4.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 2.3% |
| Two or more races | 3.3% |

## Where

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

## People named Berkeley

- Busby Berkeley, American film director and musical choreographer (1895-1976)
- Miles Joseph Berkeley, British botanist (1803-1889)
- Lennox Berkeley, British composer (1903–1989)
- Michael Berkeley, British composer and broadcaster on music
- George Cranfield Berkeley, British admiral and politician (1753-1818)

## Similar surnames

Barkley, Berkley, Burkley, Braswell, Barclay, Burkholder, Brazil, Burkhalter, Berglund, Breslin, Bressler, Brazell.

## 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.