The surname Cunningham
An English place surname, carried by 135,718 people in the United States.
Pronounced /ˈkʌnɪŋəm/ 3 syllables Soundex C552
Origin
English origin
From Scottish Gaelic Coineagan, a district of Ayrshire, either from Old English cyning (“king”) or Scottish Gaelic coineanach (“rabbit”) + Old English hām (“home, estate; hamlet, village”).
Cunningham is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 135,718 people named Cunningham in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 2,275 Americans. That is up 2.9% since 2000, when the Census counted 131,896.
Who is named Cunningham
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
73% of people named Cunningham identified as white (not Hispanic), 21% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 73%
- Black (not Hispanic) 21%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
- Two or more races 2.1%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%
Famous Cunninghams
49 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Michael CunninghamAmerican novelist and screenwriter, born 1952
- Alexander CunninghamBritish army engineer and amateur archaeologist (1814-1893)
- Walter CunninghamAmerican astronaut (1932–2023)
- Merce CunninghamAmerican dancer and choreographer (1919–2009)
- Imogen CunninghamAmerican photographer (1883-1976)
- Sean S. CunninghamAmerican film director (born 1941)
- Vashti CunninghamAmerican athletics competitor, born 1998
- Cara CunninghamAmerican Internet personality, songwriter, and recording artist, born 1987
- Billy CunninghamAmerican basketball player and coach (born 1943)
- Dante CunninghamAmerican basketball player (born 1987)
- Sophie CunninghamAmerican basketball player born 1996
- Alan CunninghamBritish Army general (1887–1983)
Notable Cunninghams come mostly from the United States (42), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (3) and the United Kingdom (3).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Surnames that sound like Cunningham
Cunningham has the Soundex code C552, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C552.
Other English surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Cunningham come from?
- From Scottish Gaelic Coineagan, a district of Ayrshire, either from Old English cyning (“king”) or Scottish Gaelic coineanach (“rabbit”) + Old English hām (“home, estate; hamlet, village”).
- How common is the surname Cunningham?
- 135,718 people in the United States had the surname Cunningham in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 2,275 Americans. It ranked 211th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Cunningham?
- In the 2010 Census, 73% of people named Cunningham identified as white (not Hispanic), and 21% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Cunningham?
- Michael Cunningham, American novelist and screenwriter, followed by Alexander Cunningham.
- Where is the surname Cunningham most common?
- Wikidata records people named Cunningham in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom and 1 other country.
- How do you pronounce Cunningham?
- Cunningham is /ˈkʌnɪŋəm/, 3 syllables.
- What type of surname is Cunningham?
- Cunningham is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
- Is the surname Cunningham getting more or less common?
- More common. 131,896 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 135,718 in 2010, up 2.9%.