# Pedersen (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/pedersen/  
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 | Danish |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 20,135 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,780 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 15,334 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.2% (19,510 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a Danish and Norwegian surname, borrowed from Danish and Norwegian Pedersen. Compare Petersen. * As an English surname, variant of Peterson.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Pedersen 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) | 94% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Pedersen in the United States.

## People named Pedersen

- Charles J. Pedersen, American organic chemist
- Susan Pedersen, American swimmer
- Kayla Pedersen, American basketball player (born 1989)
- Chris Pedersen, American musician, actor, NASCAR racer and autonomous vehicle builder
- Herb Pedersen, American musician and singer-songwriter

## Similar surnames

Peterson, Petersen, Pederson, Petterson, Pettersen, Peters, Petersheim, Pedrosa, Peeters, Patterson, Patrick, Pedraza.

## 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.