# Graham (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/graham/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A Scottish surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 201,159 |
| US rank (2010) | 120 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 1,535 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.7% (194,074 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ɡɹæm/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | Graeme, Grahame |

## Etymology

The surname derives from Gra(nt)ham, the name of a place in Lincolnshire, from Old English *grand (“gravel”) + hām (“homestead”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Graham in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 70% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 24% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.8% |
| Two or more races | 2.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Graham in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Japan.

## People named Graham

- Billy Graham, American Baptist evangelist (1918–2018)
- Heather Graham, American actress
- Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (1894–1991)
- Lauren Graham, American actress, producer and novelist
- Kat Graham, American actress and singer (born 1989)
- Katharine Graham, American publisher, editor and author
- Thomas Graham, British chemist (1805–1869)
- Benjamin Graham, American economist and investor (1894-1976)
- Ashley Graham, American model
- William Graham Sumner, American sociologist (1840–1910)
- Fiona Graham, Australian anthropologist, geisha (1961–2023)
- Ronald Graham, American mathematician (1935-2020)

and 61 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Gorham, Gran, Gram, Grahn, Green, Greene, Grimm, Giron, Grim, Guarino, Guerin, Greenway.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.