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Name Lineage

    The surname McSwain

    A Scottish Gaelic occupational surname, carried by 6,213 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex M250

    McSwain: #5,600 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer McSwain #5,600, 6,213 people McSwain: #5,600 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez McSwain #5,600, 6,213 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). McSwain is more common than 96.5% of them.

    Origin

    Scottish Gaelic origin

    Probably an Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mac Suibhne, like McSweeney or a Gaelic patronymic based on Old Norse sveinn (“boy, servant”).

    McSwain is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

    One of 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 6,213 people named McSwain in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 49,693 Americans. That is up 3.9% since 2000, when the Census counted 5,980.

    #5,600
    rank among US surnames
    6,213
    people in 2010
    2.1
    per 100,000 Americans
    +3.9%
    change since 2000 (was #5,356)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #5,595Shine6,21749,661
    #5,596Click6,21649,669
    #5,598Harbison6,21549,677
    #5,600McSwain6,21349,693
    #5,601Chinn6,21149,709

    Who is named McSwain

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

    65% of people named McSwain identified as white (not Hispanic), 30% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 65%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 30%
    • Two or more races 2.4%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3%

    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 McSwain

    McSwain has the Soundex code M250, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M250.

    Other Scottish Gaelic surnames

    All 277 Scottish Gaelic surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname McSwain come from?
    Probably an Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Mac Suibhne, like McSweeney or a Gaelic patronymic based on Old Norse sveinn (“boy, servant”).
    How common is the surname McSwain?
    6,213 people in the United States had the surname McSwain in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 49,693 Americans. It ranked 5,600th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname McSwain?
    In the 2010 Census, 65% of people named McSwain identified as white (not Hispanic), and 30% as Black (not Hispanic).
    What type of surname is McSwain?
    McSwain is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
    Is the surname McSwain getting more or less common?
    More common. 5,980 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 6,213 in 2010, up 3.9%.