# Clarke (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/clarke/  
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 originating as an occupation, variant of Clark.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 68,281 |
| US rank (2010) | 487 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 4,522 people |
| Change since 2000 | +9.2% (62,546 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Clark, from Old English clerc (“cleric, clerk”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Clarke 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) | 61% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 32% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Clarke in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, The Bahamas and the Kingdom of England.

## People named Clarke

- Emilia Clarke, British actress (born 1986)
- Cam Clarke, American voice actor
- Jason Clarke, Australian actor
- Susanna Clarke, British author (1959-)
- Sarah Clarke, American actress
- Stanley Clarke, American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever
- Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer (1914–1985)
- Melinda Clarke, American actress
- Edith Clarke, American electrical engineer (1884–1959)
- Ron Clarke, Australian long-distance runner and politician (1937–2015)
- Edmund M. Clarke, American computer scientist (1945–2020)
- Simon Clarke, Australian road cyclist

and 64 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Clark, Clerk, Clarkson, Claros, Clowers, Calleros, Colarusso.

## 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.