How common is the surname Hill?

434,827 people in the United States had the surname Hill in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 710 Americans. It ranked 39th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Hill?

Faith Hill, American country singer (born 1967), followed by Jonah Hill.

The surnameHill

A place surname, the 39th most common in the United States.

Pronounced /hɪl/ 1 syllable Soundex H400

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Hill is more common than 99.9% of them.

Origin

* As an English surname, from the noun hill, shortened from Hilary, and from Old English hild (“battle”). * As a German surname, shortened from Hildebrand, related to the last sense above. * As a Finnish surname, calque of Finnish Mäki (“hill”).

Hill is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 434,827 people named Hill in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 710 Americans. That is up 5.6% since 2000, when the Census counted 411,770.

#39

rank among US surnames

434,827

people in 2010

147

per 100,000 Americans

+5.6%

change since 2000 (was #41)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#30	Robinson	529,821	583
#31	Walker	523,129	590
#32	Young	484,447	637
#33	Allen	482,607	640
#34	King	465,422	663
#35	Wright	458,980	673
#36	Scott	439,530	702

Who is named Hill

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

64% of people named Hill identified as white (not Hispanic), 29% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 64%
Black (not Hispanic) 29%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
Two or more races 2.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.0%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Hills

151 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Faith Hill
American country singer (born 1967)
Jonah Hill
American actor (born 1983)
Benny Hill
British comedian and actor (1924–1992)
Lauryn Hill
American singer and rapper (born 1975)
Phil Hill
American racing driver (1927–2008)
Bernard Hill
British actor (1944-2024)
George Roy Hill
American film director (1921–2002)
Grant Hill
American basketball player (born 1972)
Walter Hill
American film director, producer and screenwriter, born 1942
Dana Hill
American actress (1964–1996)
Steven Hill
American actor (1922-2016)
Julia Butterfly Hill
American environmental activist (born 1974)

Notable Hills come mostly from the United States (116), Australia (18) and the United Kingdom (13).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Hill

Hill has the Soundex code H400, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code H400.

Questions

Where does the surname Hill come from?: * As an English surname, from the noun hill, shortened from Hilary, and from Old English hild (“battle”). * As a German surname, shortened from Hildebrand, related to the last sense above. * As a Finnish surname, calque of Finnish Mäki (“hill”).
How common is the surname Hill?: 434,827 people in the United States had the surname Hill in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 710 Americans. It ranked 39th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Hill?: In the 2010 Census, 64% of people named Hill identified as white (not Hispanic), and 29% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Hill?: Faith Hill, American country singer (born 1967), followed by Jonah Hill.