# Napier (surname)

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

A Scottish surname originating as an occupation for someone who sold table linen, or was in charge of the linen of a great house.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 19,182 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,872 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 16,096 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.4% (18,726 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

See napery

## Who carries it

Share of people named Napier 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) | 84% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 11% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.9% |

## Where

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

## People named Napier

- Charles Napier, American actor (1936–2011)
- Shabazz Napier, American basketball player
- Jessica Napier, Australian actress
- Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier, British diplomat
- George Thomas Napier, British Army general (1784-1855)

## Similar surnames

Nipper, Napper, Naber, Navarro, Newberry, Neubauer, Navarre, Newbury, Navarra, Niebuhr, Navar, Nabor.

## 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.