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    The surname Drayton

    A place surname, carried by 7,648 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈdɹeɪ.tən/ 2 syllables Soundex D635

    Drayton: #4,640 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Drayton #4,640, 7,648 people Drayton: #4,640 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Drayton #4,640, 7,648 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Drayton is more common than 97.1% of them.

    Origin

    From Middle English Drayton, from Old English Drægtūn (literally “town where logs are dragged”), from draġan (“to draw, drag”) + tūn (“enclosure, town”). Alternatively from Proto-Brythonic *treβ (“town, settlement”) + Old English tūn.

    Drayton 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 7,648 people named Drayton in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 40,369 Americans. That is up 10% since 2000, when the Census counted 6,944.

    #4,640
    rank among US surnames
    7,648
    people in 2010
    2.6
    per 100,000 Americans
    +10.1%
    change since 2000 (was #4,669)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #4,631Omar7,66040,306
    #4,632Janes7,65940,311
    #4,633Nakamura7,65840,317
    #4,634Moye7,65740,322
    #4,635Thomsen7,65440,338
    #4,636Morehead7,65340,343
    #4,637Schenk7,65140,354

    Who is named Drayton

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

    79% of people named Drayton identified as Black (not Hispanic), 15% as white (not Hispanic) and 3.3% as two or more races.

    • Black (not Hispanic) 79%
    • White (not Hispanic) 15%
    • Two or more races 3.3%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.8%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.2%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.2%

    Compare: most common surnames among Black Americans.

    Famous Draytons

    3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Paul Drayton
      American sprinter, 1939–2010
    • Bill Drayton
      American social entrepreneur, born 1943
    • Noel Drayton
      Actor (1913-1981)

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Drayton

    Drayton has the Soundex code D635, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code D635.

    Questions

    Where does the surname Drayton come from?
    From Middle English Drayton, from Old English Drægtūn (literally “town where logs are dragged”), from draġan (“to draw, drag”) + tūn (“enclosure, town”). Alternatively from Proto-Brythonic *treβ (“town, settlement”) + Old English tūn.
    How common is the surname Drayton?
    7,648 people in the United States had the surname Drayton in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 40,369 Americans. It ranked 4,640th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Drayton?
    In the 2010 Census, 79% of people named Drayton identified as Black (not Hispanic), and 15% as white (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Drayton?
    Paul Drayton, American sprinter, followed by Bill Drayton.
    Where is the surname Drayton most common?
    Wikidata records people named Drayton in the United States.
    How do you pronounce Drayton?
    Drayton is /ˈdɹeɪ.tən/, 2 syllables.
    What type of surname is Drayton?
    Drayton is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Drayton getting more or less common?
    More common. 6,944 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 7,648 in 2010, up 10%.