How common is the surname Pope?

63,881 people in the United States had the surname Pope in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 4,833 Americans. It ranked 528th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Pope?

Eddie Pope, American soccer player, followed by Cassadee Pope.

Where is the surname Pope most common?

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

Is the surname Pope getting more or less common?

More common. 61,750 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 63,881 in 2010, up 3.5%.

The surname Pope

A nickname surname, carried by 63,881 people in the United States.

Pronounced /poʊp/ 1 syllable Soundex P100

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Pope is more common than 99.7% of them.

Origin

From pope; also used in Ireland/Scotland as a surname meaning "papa, father."

Pope is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 63,881 people named Pope in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 4,833 Americans. That is up 3.5% since 2000, when the Census counted 61,750.

#528

rank among US surnames

63,881

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+3.5%

change since 2000 (was #486)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#519	Moody	64,429	4,792
#520	Escobar	64,403	4,794
#521	McGuire	64,327	4,800
#522	Lloyd	64,202	4,809
#523	Mueller	64,191	4,810
#524	Hartman	64,106	4,816
#525	French	63,991	4,825

Who is named Pope

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

71% of people named Pope identified as white (not Hispanic), 24% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.2% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 71%
Black (not Hispanic) 24%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.2%
Two or more races 2.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Popes

17 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Eddie Pope
American soccer player, born 1973
Cassadee Pope
American singer, born 1989
Jeremy Pope
American actor, born 1992
John Russell Pope
American architect (1874–1937)
Bill Pope
American cinematographer, born 1952
Dick Pope
British cinematographer (1947–2024)
Paula Jean Myers-Pope
American diver (1934–1995)
Lucas Pope
American video game designer, born 1977
Gus Pope
Athletics competitor (1898–1953)
Martin Pope
American physical chemist (1918–2022)
John Pope
American politician (1770–1845)
William Jackson Pope
British chemist (1870-1939)

Notable Popes come mostly from the United States (15), the United Kingdom (1) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Pope

Pope has the Soundex code P100, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code P100.

Questions

Where does the surname Pope come from?: From pope; also used in Ireland/Scotland as a surname meaning "papa, father."
How common is the surname Pope?: 63,881 people in the United States had the surname Pope in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 4,833 Americans. It ranked 528th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Pope?: In the 2010 Census, 71% of people named Pope identified as white (not Hispanic), and 24% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Pope?: Eddie Pope, American soccer player, followed by Cassadee Pope.
Where is the surname Pope most common?: Wikidata records people named Pope in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
How do you pronounce Pope?: Pope is /poʊp/, one syllable.
What type of surname is Pope?: Pope is a nickname surname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
Is the surname Pope getting more or less common?: More common. 61,750 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 63,881 in 2010, up 3.5%.