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Name Lineage

    The surname Nair

    A Malayalam surname, carried by 7,513 people in the United States.

    1 syllable Soundex N600

    Nair: #4,719 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Nair #4,719, 7,513 people Nair: #4,719 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Nair #4,719, 7,513 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Nair is more common than 97.1% of them.

    Origin

    Malayalam origin

    Borrowed from Malayalam നായർ (nāyaṟ).

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 7,513 people named Nair in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 41,095 Americans. That is up 102% since 2000, when the Census counted 3,728.

    #4,719
    rank among US surnames
    7,513
    people in 2010
    2.5
    per 100,000 Americans
    +101.5%
    change since 2000 (was #8,185)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #4,714Ehlers7,52441,035
    #4,716Marques7,52041,057
    #4,717Berryman7,51741,073
    #4,719Nair7,51341,095
    #4,721Friesen7,51241,100

    Who is named Nair

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

    84% of people named Nair identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, 10% as white (not Hispanic) and 3.3% as two or more races.

    • Asian and Pacific Islander 84%
    • White (not Hispanic) 10%
    • Two or more races 3.3%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 1.1%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 0.7%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

    Famous Nairs

    2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Leena Nair
      British businesswoman with Indian origin, born 1969
    • Dhanya Nair
      Badminton player, born 1984

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    • Naire
    • Nayar
    • Nayre
    • Nayyar

    Surnames that sound like Nair

    Nair has the Soundex code N600, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code N600.

    Questions

    Where does the surname Nair come from?
    Borrowed from Malayalam നായർ (nāyaṟ).
    How common is the surname Nair?
    7,513 people in the United States had the surname Nair in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 41,095 Americans. It ranked 4,719th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Nair?
    In the 2010 Census, 84% of people named Nair identified as Asian and Pacific Islander, and 10% as white (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Nair?
    Leena Nair, British businesswoman with Indian origin, followed by Dhanya Nair.
    Where is the surname Nair most common?
    Wikidata records people named Nair in India.
    Is the surname Nair getting more or less common?
    More common. 3,728 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 7,513 in 2010, up 102%.
    What are other spellings of Nair?
    Naire, Nayar, Nayre and Nayyar.