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Name Lineage

    The surname Burroughs

    A place surname, carried by 17,336 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex B620

    Burroughs: #2,087 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#10,001Dubon Burroughs #2,087, 17,336 people Burroughs: #2,087 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Burroughs #2,087, 17,336 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Burroughs is more common than 98.7% of them.

    Origin

    An English topographical surname from Middle English, from Old English beorg (“hill”) or burg (“fort”), for someone who lived near a hill or fort.

    Burroughs is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 17,336 people named Burroughs in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 17,810 Americans. That is up 3.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 16,702.

    #2,087
    rank among US surnames
    17,336
    people in 2010
    5.9
    per 100,000 Americans
    +3.8%
    change since 2000 (was #1,990)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #2,078Ceja17,42317,721
    #2,079O'Keefe17,41417,730
    #2,080Shultz17,39517,749
    #2,081Cormier17,37717,767
    #2,082Bain17,37117,774
    #2,083Madsen17,36417,781
    #2,084Cavazos17,36117,784

    Who is named Burroughs

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    68% of people named Burroughs identified as white (not Hispanic), 26% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 68%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 26%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
    • Two or more races 2.0%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Burroughss

    11 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Edgar Rice Burroughs
      American writer (1875–1950)
    • William S. Burroughs
      American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer (1914–
    • John Burroughs
      American naturalist and essayist (1837-1921)
    • Jordan Burroughs
      American wrestler (born 1988)
    • William Seward Burroughs I
      American businessman (1857–1898)
    • Augusten Burroughs
      American writer, born 1965
    • Nannie Helen Burroughs
      American activist (1879–1961)
    • Sean Burroughs
      American baseball player (1980–2024)
    • William S. Burroughs Jr.
      American writer (1947–1981)
    • Tim Burroughs
      American basketball player (born 1969)
    • Bryson Burroughs
      American painter and art historian (1869–1934)

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    Surnames that sound like Burroughs

    Burroughs has the Soundex code B620, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code B620.

    Questions

    How common is the surname Burroughs?
    17,336 people in the United States had the surname Burroughs in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 17,810 Americans. It ranked 2,087th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Burroughs?
    In the 2010 Census, 68% of people named Burroughs identified as white (not Hispanic), and 26% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Burroughs?
    Edgar Rice Burroughs, American writer (1875–1950), followed by William S. Burroughs.
    Where is the surname Burroughs most common?
    Wikidata records people named Burroughs in the United States.
    What type of surname is Burroughs?
    Burroughs is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Burroughs getting more or less common?
    More common. 16,702 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 17,336 in 2010, up 3.8%.
    What are other spellings of Burroughs?
    Burrough, Burrow, Burrowes and Burrows.