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The surname Kells

A surname, carried by 1,778 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex K420

Kells: #16,238 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Kells #16,238, 1,778 people Kells: #16,238 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Kells #16,238, 1,778 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Kells is more common than 90% of them.

Origin

A surname.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 1,778 people named Kells in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 173,648 Americans. That is up 42% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,256.

#16,238
rank among US surnames
1,778
people in 2010
0.6
per 100,000 Americans
+41.6%
change since 2000 (was #19,813)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#16,238Smoker1,778173,648
#16,247Haddon1,777173,745

Who is named Kells

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

81% of people named Kells identified as white (not Hispanic), 7.8% as Black (not Hispanic) and 6.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 81%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 7.8%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 6.4%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 2.4%
  • Two or more races 1.9%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Kells

Kells has the Soundex code K420, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code K420.

Questions

How common is the surname Kells?
1,778 people in the United States had the surname Kells in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 173,648 Americans. It ranked 16,238th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Kells?
In the 2010 Census, 81% of people named Kells identified as white (not Hispanic), and 7.8% as Black (not Hispanic).
Is the surname Kells getting more or less common?
More common. 1,256 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,778 in 2010, up 42%.