# Kirkby (surname)

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

A habitational surname from Old Norse.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Norse |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 451 |
| US rank (2010) | 47,107 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 684,580 people |
| Change since 2000 | +9.5% (412 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkɝbi/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From kirk + -by. From Old Scandinavian / Old Norse kirkja+býr, a village with a church.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Kirkby 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) | 91% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 4.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Kirkby in the United States.

## People named Kirkby

- Ollie Kirkby, American actress (1886 – 1964)
- Sophia Kirkby, American luger

## Similar surnames

Kirkbride, Kirkpatrick, Kirchoff, Kirschbaum, Kirchhoff, Kargbo, Kiracofe.

## 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.