How common is the surname Ness?

11,037 people in the United States had the surname Ness in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 27,974 Americans. It ranked 3,272nd of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Ness?

In the 2010 Census, 94% of people named Ness identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Ness?

Eliot Ness, American Prohibition agent (1903-1957), followed by Mike Ness.

Where is the surname Ness most common?

Wikidata records people named Ness in the United States.

Is the surname Ness getting more or less common?

Less common. 11,058 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 11,037 in 2010, down 0.2%.

The surname Ness

A surname, carried by 11,037 people in the United States.

Pronounced /nɛs/ 1 syllable Soundex N200

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Ness is more common than 98% of them.

Origin

Named after the River Ness, of Proto-Brythonic/Pictish origin, from a Proto-Celtic word *Nesta describing great currents, according to MacBain, from the same Proto-Indo-European root that gave the river Νέστος (Néstos), possibly *ned- (“water”) (cf. German nass (“wet”)).

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 11,037 people named Ness in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 27,974 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 11,058.

#3,272

rank among US surnames

11,037

people in 2010

3.7

per 100,000 Americans

-0.2%

change since 2000 (was #3,000)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#3,263	Peek	11,062	27,910
#3,264	Seeley	11,061	27,913
#3,265	Strand	11,051	27,938
#3,267	Grooms	11,045	27,953
#3,268	Barba	11,043	27,958
#3,270	Freitas	11,041	27,964
#3,271	Byrnes	11,039	27,969

Who is named Ness

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

94% of people named Ness identified as white (not Hispanic), 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.6% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 94%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
Two or more races 1.6%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.0%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Nesss

4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Eliot Ness
American Prohibition agent (1903-1957)
Mike Ness
American musician, born 1962
Patrick Ness
American-British novelist and children's writer, born 1971
Aaron Ness
American ice hockey player, born 1990

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Ness

Ness has the Soundex code N200, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code N200.

Questions

Where does the surname Ness come from?: Named after the River Ness, of Proto-Brythonic/Pictish origin, from a Proto-Celtic word *Nesta describing great currents, according to MacBain, from the same Proto-Indo-European root that gave the river Νέστος (Néstos), possibly *ned- (“water”) (cf. German nass (“wet”)).
How common is the surname Ness?: 11,037 people in the United States had the surname Ness in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 27,974 Americans. It ranked 3,272nd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Ness?: In the 2010 Census, 94% of people named Ness identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Ness?: Eliot Ness, American Prohibition agent (1903-1957), followed by Mike Ness.
Where is the surname Ness most common?: Wikidata records people named Ness in the United States.
How do you pronounce Ness?: Ness is /nɛs/, one syllable.
Is the surname Ness getting more or less common?: Less common. 11,058 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 11,037 in 2010, down 0.2%.