How common is the surname Heard?

23,408 people in the United States had the surname Heard in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 13,190 Americans. It ranked 1,534th of 162,253 surnames.

Is the surname Heard getting more or less common?

More common. 22,211 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 23,408 in 2010, up 5.4%.

The surname Heard

An English occupational surname, carried by 23,408 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex H630

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Heard is more common than 99.1% of them.

Origin

English origin

Occupational Middle English surname for shepherds or cowherds, from herde, from Old English heord (“herd”).

Heard is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 23,408 people named Heard in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 13,190 Americans. That is up 5.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 22,211.

#1,534

rank among US surnames

23,408

people in 2010

7.9

per 100,000 Americans

+5.4%

change since 2000 (was #1,469)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,525	Gunn	23,524	13,125
#1,526	Jeffries	23,510	13,133
#1,527	Dooley	23,481	13,149
#1,528	Pagan	23,474	13,153
#1,529	McGhee	23,461	13,160
#1,530	Post	23,458	13,162
#1,531	Montalvo	23,454	13,164

Who is named Heard

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

55% of people named Heard identified as Black (not Hispanic), 39% as white (not Hispanic) and 3.1% as two or more races.

Black (not Hispanic) 55%
White (not Hispanic) 39%
Two or more races 3.1%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.4%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%

Compare: most common surnames among Black Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Heard

Heard has the Soundex code H630, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code H630.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Heard come from?: Occupational Middle English surname for shepherds or cowherds, from herde, from Old English heord (“herd”).
How common is the surname Heard?: 23,408 people in the United States had the surname Heard in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 13,190 Americans. It ranked 1,534th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Heard?: In the 2010 Census, 55% of people named Heard identified as Black (not Hispanic), and 39% as white (not Hispanic).
What type of surname is Heard?: Heard is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Heard getting more or less common?: More common. 22,211 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 23,408 in 2010, up 5.4%.