# Pray (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/pray/  
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 | Irish |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 3,773 |
| US rank (2010) | 8,700 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 81,830 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.1% (3,694 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an Irish surname, variant of Prey, from ó Préith, a personal name from Old Irish. * As an English surname, borrowed (via Middle English) from French pré (“meadow”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Pray 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) | 84% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 9.1% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Pray in the United States.

## People named Pray

- Charles Nelson Pray, American politician and judge (1868–1963)

## Similar surnames

Parry, Pera, Pry, Par, Proa, Perry, Parra, Pierre, Parr, Power, Perea, Poore.

## 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.