# Payne (surname)

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

An English surname, variant of Paine.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 142,601 |
| US rank (2010) | 195 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 2,165 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.3% (138,028 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /peɪn/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Payne 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) | 72% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 23% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 2.4% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Payne in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Greece and Kingdom of the Netherlands.

## People named Payne

- Cecilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin, British-born American astronomer
- Alexander Payne, American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1961)
- Ruby Payne-Scott, Australian radio astronomer (1912-1981)
- John Payne, American actor (1912–1989)
- Marise Payne, Australian politician
- David Payne, American hurdler
- Freda Payne, American singer and actress (born 1942)
- Stanley George Payne, American historian
- Cameron Payne, American basketball player (born 1994)
- Adreian Payne, American basketball player (1991–2022)
- John Howard Payne, American actor and writer (1791-1852)
- Thelma Payne, American diver (1896–1988)

and 27 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Pan, Paine, Pyne, Paone, Pane, Payan, Payano, Pena, Pham, Phan, Pina, Penn.

## 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.