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Name Lineage

    The surname Foy

    A surname, carried by 12,952 people in the United States.

    1 syllable Soundex F000

    Foy: #2,786 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Foy #2,786, 12,952 people Foy: #2,786 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Foy #2,786, 12,952 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Foy is more common than 98.3% of them.

    Origin

    From Middle French foy (“faith”) and placenames such as Sainte-Foy, variously from sainte foy (“holy faith”) and from the French name of St. Faith.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 12,952 people named Foy in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 23,838 Americans. That is down 5.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 13,630.

    #2,786
    rank among US surnames
    12,952
    people in 2010
    4.4
    per 100,000 Americans
    -5%
    change since 2000 (was #2,432)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #2,777Leggett12,97723,792
    #2,778Girard12,97523,795
    #2,779Su12,97323,799
    #2,780Gann12,97223,801
    #2,781Lytle12,97023,805
    #2,782Nobles12,96523,814
    #2,783Bolin12,96223,819

    Who is named Foy

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

    72% of people named Foy identified as white (not Hispanic), 22% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 72%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 22%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
    • Two or more races 1.9%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.8%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Foys

    8 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Claire Foy
      British actress (born 1984)
    • Mackenzie Foy
      American actress, born 2000
    • Randy Foye
      American basketball player (born 1983)
    • Bryan Foy
      American film producer and director, 1896–1977
    • Eddie Foy
      American actor (1856-1928)
    • Eddie Foy, Jr.
      American actor (1905-1983)
    • Shirley Bunnie Foy
      American jazz musician (1936–2016)
    • Eddie Foy III
      American actor (1935-2018)

    Notable Foys come mostly from the United States (7) and the United Kingdom (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Foy

    Foy has the Soundex code F000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code F000.

    Questions

    Where does the surname Foy come from?
    From Middle French foy (“faith”) and placenames such as Sainte-Foy, variously from sainte foy (“holy faith”) and from the French name of St. Faith.
    How common is the surname Foy?
    12,952 people in the United States had the surname Foy in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 23,838 Americans. It ranked 2,786th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Foy?
    In the 2010 Census, 72% of people named Foy identified as white (not Hispanic), and 22% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Foy?
    Claire Foy, British actress (born 1984), followed by Mackenzie Foy.
    Where is the surname Foy most common?
    Wikidata records people named Foy in the United States and the United Kingdom.
    Is the surname Foy getting more or less common?
    Less common. 13,630 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 12,952 in 2010, down 5.0%.