The surname Keith
A Scottish Gaelic place surname, carried by 48,487 people in the United States.
Pronounced /kiːθ/ 1 syllable Soundex K300 Also a first name
Origin
Scottish Gaelic origin
* As a Scottish surname, from the placename in Moray, Scotland, from Scottish Gaelic Cèith, meaning "wood" or "from the battleground," which is probably borrowed from Pictish *ᚉᚓᚈ (cēt) meaning "wood", or a forest, from Proto-Brythonic *koɨd. * As a German surname, from Middle High German kit (“sprout, offspring”); compare Middle High German kint.
Keith is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
One of 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 48,487 people named Keith in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 6,368 Americans. That is up 3.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 46,747.
Who is named Keith
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
79% of people named Keith identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 79%
- Black (not Hispanic) 15%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
- Two or more races 2.1%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 1.1%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%
Famous Keiths
19 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Toby KeithAmerican country music singer and actor (1961–2024)
- Brian KeithAmerican actor (1921–1997)
- David KeithAmerican actor and film director, born 1954
- Robert KeithAmerican actor (1898–1966)
- Ian KeithActor (1899-1960)
- Arthur KeithBritish anatomist and anthropologist (1866–1955)
- Ben KeithAmerican musician (1937–2010)
- Megan KeithBritish athlete, born 2002
- Donald KeithAmerican actor (1903-1969)
- Jeff KeithAmerican musician, born 1958
- Elmer KeithAmerican rancher, 1899–1984
- Richard KeithAmerican actor, writer, director, born 1982
Notable Keiths come mostly from the United States (17), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1) and the United Kingdom (1).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Keith has the Soundex code K300, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code K300.
Other Scottish Gaelic surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Keith come from?
- * As a Scottish surname, from the placename in Moray, Scotland, from Scottish Gaelic Cèith, meaning "wood" or "from the battleground," which is probably borrowed from Pictish *ᚉᚓᚈ (cēt) meaning "wood", or a forest, from Proto-Brythonic *koɨd. * As a German surname, from Middle High German kit…
- How common is the surname Keith?
- 48,487 people in the United States had the surname Keith in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 6,368 Americans. It ranked 718th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Keith?
- In the 2010 Census, 79% of people named Keith identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Keith?
- Toby Keith, American country music singer and actor (1961–2024), followed by Brian Keith.
- Where is the surname Keith most common?
- Wikidata records people named Keith in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom.
- How do you pronounce Keith?
- Keith is /kiːθ/, one syllable.
- What type of surname is Keith?
- Keith is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
- Is the surname Keith getting more or less common?
- More common. 46,747 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 48,487 in 2010, up 3.7%.
- Is Keith also a first name?
- Yes. Keith is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.