# Main (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 12,776 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,824 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 24,166 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.1% (12,631 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a Scottish surname, reduced from the North Germanic name Magnus. Also from the adjective main. * As a Scottish, English, French and Norman surname, from personal names derived from Proto-West Germanic *magan (“to be able”), similar to Mein. * As a Scottish, English and Norman surname, from the French province of Maine. Compare Mansell. * As a Scottish, English, and Norman surname, from the Anglo-Norman adjective maine (“great, large”), from Old French magne. * As a Scottish, English, Norman and French surname, from the noun main (“hand”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Main 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) | 92% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.3% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Main in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

## People named Main

- Laura Main, British actress
- Barbara York Main, Australian arachnologist (1929-2019)
- Robert Main, British astronomer

## Similar surnames

Mann, Min, Mayne, Man, Maine, Manna, Maney, Mina, Manno, Mani, Mahn, Mian.

## 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.