How common is the surname Lightfoot?

8,634 people in the United States had the surname Lightfoot in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 35,759 Americans. It ranked 4,109th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Lightfoot?

Amanda Lightfoot, British biathlete, followed by J. B. Lightfoot.

Where is the surname Lightfoot most common?

Wikidata records people named Lightfoot in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

How do you pronounce Lightfoot?

Lightfoot is /ˈlaɪtfʊt/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Lightfoot getting more or less common?

More common. 8,190 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,634 in 2010, up 5.4%.

The surname Lightfoot

A nickname surname, carried by 8,634 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈlaɪtfʊt/ 2 syllables Soundex L231

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Lightfoot is more common than 97.5% of them.

Origin

From light + foot, a nickname for a messenger or fast runner.

Lightfoot is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 8,634 people named Lightfoot in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 35,759 Americans. That is up 5.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 8,190.

#4,109

rank among US surnames

8,634

people in 2010

2.9

per 100,000 Americans

+5.4%

change since 2000 (was #3,982)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#4,100	Boothe	8,656	35,668
#4,101	Freeland	8,653	35,681
#4,102	Fusco	8,650	35,693
#4,103	Parada	8,649	35,697
#4,104	Sorrell	8,641	35,730
#4,105	Hawks	8,639	35,739
#4,107	Prasad	8,638	35,743

Who is named Lightfoot

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

60% of people named Lightfoot identified as white (not Hispanic), 30% as Black (not Hispanic) and 4.8% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 60%
Black (not Hispanic) 30%
Two or more races 4.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native 2.7%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Lightfoots

5 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Amanda Lightfoot
British biathlete, born 1987
J. B. Lightfoot
British bishop and scholar of early Christianity (1828–1889)
KC Lightfoot
American athletics competitor, born 1999
Jim Ross Lightfoot
American politician, born 1938
Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr.
American space agency executive, born 1963

Notable Lightfoots come mostly from the United States (3), the United Kingdom (1) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Lightfoot

Lightbourne

Lightfoot has the Soundex code L231, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code L231.

Questions

Where does the surname Lightfoot come from?: From light + foot, a nickname for a messenger or fast runner.
How common is the surname Lightfoot?: 8,634 people in the United States had the surname Lightfoot in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 35,759 Americans. It ranked 4,109th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Lightfoot?: In the 2010 Census, 60% of people named Lightfoot identified as white (not Hispanic), and 30% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Lightfoot?: Amanda Lightfoot, British biathlete, followed by J. B. Lightfoot.
Where is the surname Lightfoot most common?: Wikidata records people named Lightfoot in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
How do you pronounce Lightfoot?: Lightfoot is /ˈlaɪtfʊt/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Lightfoot?: Lightfoot is a nickname surname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
Is the surname Lightfoot getting more or less common?: More common. 8,190 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,634 in 2010, up 5.4%.