How common is the surname Fife?

6,719 people in the United States had the surname Fife in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 45,951 Americans. It ranked 5,202nd of 162,253 surnames.

How do you pronounce Fife?

Fife is /ˈfʌɪf/, one syllable.

Is the surname Fife getting more or less common?

More common. 6,574 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 6,719 in 2010, up 2.2%.

The surname Fife

A Scottish Gaelic surname, carried by 6,719 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈfʌɪf/ 1 syllable Soundex F100

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Fife is more common than 96.8% of them.

Origin

Scottish Gaelic origin

Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Fìobha, said to date back to the eponym Fib, one of the seven sons of the legendary Pictish king Cruithne. Possibly related to the Uip attested in the Pictish kings lists, in turn possibly related to the Latin Vepogenus, in which the first element is the Proto-Brythonic predecessor of Welsh gwep (“face”).

One of 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 6,719 people named Fife in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 45,951 Americans. That is up 2.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 6,574.

#5,202

rank among US surnames

6,719

people in 2010

2.3

per 100,000 Americans

+2.2%

change since 2000 (was #4,910)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#5,194	Wisdom	6,734	45,849
#5,195	Bremer	6,733	45,856
#5,196	Rountree	6,726	45,903
#5,197	Roybal	6,725	45,910
#5,198	Zachary	6,724	45,917
#5,199	Somerville	6,721	45,937
#5,201	Orton	6,720	45,944

Who is named Fife

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

89% of people named Fife identified as white (not Hispanic), 6.2% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.1% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 89%
Black (not Hispanic) 6.2%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.1%
Two or more races 1.7%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.4%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Fife

Fyfe

Fife has the Soundex code F100, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code F100.

Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Fife come from?: Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Fìobha, said to date back to the eponym Fib, one of the seven sons of the legendary Pictish king Cruithne. Possibly related to the Uip attested in the Pictish kings lists, in turn possibly related to the Latin Vepogenus, in which the first element is the…
How common is the surname Fife?: 6,719 people in the United States had the surname Fife in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 45,951 Americans. It ranked 5,202nd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Fife?: In the 2010 Census, 89% of people named Fife identified as white (not Hispanic), and 6.2% as Black (not Hispanic).
How do you pronounce Fife?: Fife is /ˈfʌɪf/, one syllable.
Is the surname Fife getting more or less common?: More common. 6,574 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 6,719 in 2010, up 2.2%.