Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Forsythe

    A Scottish Gaelic surname, carried by 11,489 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈfɔɹsaɪθ/ 2 syllables Soundex F623

    Forsythe: #3,147 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Forsythe #3,147, 11,489 people Forsythe: #3,147 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Forsythe #3,147, 11,489 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Forsythe is more common than 98.1% of them.

    Origin

    Scottish Gaelic origin

    Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic personal name Fearsithe, composed of the elements fear (“man”) + sìth (“peace”).

    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 11,489 people named Forsythe in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 26,873 Americans. That is up 0.9% since 2000, when the Census counted 11,382.

    #3,147
    rank among US surnames
    11,489
    people in 2010
    3.9
    per 100,000 Americans
    +0.9%
    change since 2000 (was #2,894)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #3,138Cary11,50626,833
    #3,140Ruelas11,50526,836
    #3,141Grigsby11,50126,845
    #3,142Maciel11,50026,847
    #3,144Steffen11,49426,861
    #3,145Blalock11,49326,864
    #3,146Levesque11,49026,871

    Who is named Forsythe

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

    90% of people named Forsythe identified as white (not Hispanic), 4.3% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 90%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 4.3%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
    • Two or more races 1.7%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Forsythes

    3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • John Forsythe
      American film and television actor (1918–2010)
    • William Forsythe
      American actor, born 1955
    • William Forsythe
      American choreographer (born 1949)

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    • Forsyte

    Surnames that sound like Forsythe

    Forsythe has the Soundex code F623, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code F623.

    Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

    All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Forsythe come from?
    Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic personal name Fearsithe, composed of the elements fear (“man”) + sìth (“peace”).
    How common is the surname Forsythe?
    11,489 people in the United States had the surname Forsythe in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 26,873 Americans. It ranked 3,147th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Forsythe?
    In the 2010 Census, 90% of people named Forsythe identified as white (not Hispanic), and 4.3% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Forsythe?
    John Forsythe, American film and television actor (1918–2010), followed by William Forsythe.
    Where is the surname Forsythe most common?
    Wikidata records people named Forsythe in the United States.
    How do you pronounce Forsythe?
    Forsythe is /ˈfɔɹsaɪθ/, 2 syllables.
    Is the surname Forsythe getting more or less common?
    More common. 11,382 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 11,489 in 2010, up 0.9%.
    What are other spellings of Forsythe?
    Forsyte.