# Mears (surname)

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

A surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 9,988 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,569 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 30,912 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.9% (9,706 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an English surname, variant of Mear, topographic surname for someone who lived by a pond, from Old English mere (“lake, pool”), or near a boundary, from ġemǣre (“boundary, border”). * As an Irish surname, from Ó Meidhir, from meidhir (“mirth”). Compare Myers.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Mears 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) | 88% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 6.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Mears in the United States and the United Kingdom.

## People named Mears

- Derek Mears, American actor
- Chris Mears, British diver and record producer
- Rick Mears, American racecar driver
- Casey Mears, American racing driver

## Similar surnames

Mares, Meraz, Marrs, Mars, Merz, Maris, Miers, Meares, Meers, Marsee, Myers, Marsh.

## 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.