Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Gearin

    A surname, carried by 721 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex G650

    Gearin: #31,994 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Gearin #31,994, 721 people Gearin: #31,994 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Gearin #31,994, 721 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Gearin is more common than 80.3% of them.

    Origin

    The surname Gearin and variations thereof likely arose independently multiple times in Western Europe. In Ireland, it is probably derived from Ó Gearáin, perhaps a diminutive of the Old Irish, “gér,” meaning “sharp,” “intelligent,” and “piercing.” In England and continental Europe, Gearin may variously derive from “guerre” meaning “war” or “gār” and “geirr” which mean “spear,” and which share their etymology with Old Irish, “gér” through from Proto-Celtic *gaisos, and Proto-Germanic *gaizaz. Both roots have cognates in Old English, Old French, and Old Norse, which may have resulted in contemporaneous families with non-shared ancestries to adopt the surname. Prior to the standardization of English spelling, it is likely that unrelated families in the same region went by phonetically similar but etymologically distinct surnames resulting in homophone and heteronym “Gearin’s”.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 721 people named Gearin in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 428,218 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 724.

    #31,994
    rank among US surnames
    721
    people in 2010
    0.2
    per 100,000 Americans
    -0.4%
    change since 2000 (was #30,443)

    Who is named Gearin

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

    94% of people named Gearin identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.3% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 94%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.5%
    • Two or more races 1.3%
    The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Black, Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Gearins

    1 notable person on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • John M. Gearin
      American politician (1851-1930)

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Gearin

    Gearin has the Soundex code G650, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code G650.

    Questions

    Where does the surname Gearin come from?
    The surname Gearin and variations thereof likely arose independently multiple times in Western Europe. In Ireland, it is probably derived from Ó Gearáin, perhaps a diminutive of the Old Irish, “gér,” meaning “sharp,” “intelligent,” and “piercing.” In England and continental Europe, Gearin may…
    How common is the surname Gearin?
    721 people in the United States had the surname Gearin in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 428,218 Americans. It ranked 31,994th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Gearin?
    In the 2010 Census, 94% of people named Gearin identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
    Who is the most famous person named Gearin?
    John M. Gearin, American politician (1851-1930).
    Where is the surname Gearin most common?
    Wikidata records people named Gearin in the United States.
    Is the surname Gearin getting more or less common?
    Less common. 724 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 721 in 2010, down 0.4%.