# Cranston (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/cranston/  
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) | 3,200 |
| US rank (2010) | 10,072 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 96,483 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.3% (3,128 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkɹænstən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From the genitive form of Old English cran (“crane”) + tūn (“enclosure; settlement”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cranston 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) | 88% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 6.4% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 1.6% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cranston in the United States.

## People named Cranston

- Bryan Cranston, American actor (born 1956)
- Alan Cranston, American politician (1914–2000)

## Similar surnames

Carrington, Crank, Carns, Carranza, Carmichael, Crenshaw, Cornejo, Carnes, Cornish, Carmack, Cronk, Cairns.

## 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.