# Oates (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 12,202 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,940 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 25,303 people |
| Change since 2000 | +7.5% (11,346 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /oʊts/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | Oatis |

## Etymology

* As an English and Irish surname of Norman origin, from Old Norman Ode, Odes, from the Germanic name Audo, shortened from compound names containing the element *aud (“wealth”). See also Ott. * As an Irish and Manx surname, from Ó Cuirc or Mac Cuirc and mistakenly associated with coirce (“oats”). See Quirk.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Oates 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) | 61% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 34% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Similar surnames

Oats, Otis, Otts, Odisho.

## 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.