The surname Knight
An English occupational surname, carried by 136,713 people in the United States.
Pronounced /naɪt/ 1 syllable Soundex K523
Origin
English origin
From Middle English knyghte, from Old English cniht (“youth; servant”).
Knight 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 136,713 people named Knight in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 2,258 Americans. That is up 3.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 131,860.
Who is named Knight
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
72% of people named Knight identified as white (not Hispanic), 22% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- White (not Hispanic) 72%
- Black (not Hispanic) 22%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
- Two or more races 2.2%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 0.9%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
Famous Knights
72 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first
- Wayne KnightAmerican actor, born 1955
- Shirley KnightAmerican actress (1936-2020)
- Sterling KnightAmerican actor, singer, songwriter, director, comedian and musician, born 1989
- Phil KnightAmerican billionaire and co-founder of Nike, born 1938
- Gladys KnightAmerican singer (born 1944)
- T. R. KnightAmerican actor, born 1973
- Frank KnightAmerican economist (1885-1972)
- Suge KnightAmerican record producer and music executive, born 1965
- Damon KnightAmerican science fiction writer, editor and critic (1922–2002)
- Bianca KnightAmerican sprinter, born 1989
- Aramis KnightAmerican actor, born 1999
- Bob KnightAmerican basketball coach (1940–2023)
Notable Knights come mostly from the United States (61), the United Kingdom (8) and the Kingdom of Great Britain (1).
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Knight has the Soundex code K523, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code K523.
Other English surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Knight come from?
- From Middle English knyghte, from Old English cniht (“youth; servant”).
- How common is the surname Knight?
- 136,713 people in the United States had the surname Knight in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 2,258 Americans. It ranked 209th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Knight?
- In the 2010 Census, 72% of people named Knight identified as white (not Hispanic), and 22% as Black (not Hispanic).
- Who is the most famous person named Knight?
- Wayne Knight, American actor, followed by Shirley Knight.
- Where is the surname Knight most common?
- Wikidata records people named Knight in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Great Britain and 2 other countries.
- How do you pronounce Knight?
- Knight is /naɪt/, one syllable.
- What type of surname is Knight?
- Knight is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
- Is the surname Knight getting more or less common?
- More common. 131,860 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 136,713 in 2010, up 3.7%.
- Is Knight also a first name?
- Yes. Knight 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.