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The surname Primrose

A place surname, carried by 1,199 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex P656 Also a first name

Primrose: #21,707 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Primrose #21,707, 1,199 people Primrose: #21,707 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Primrose #21,707, 1,199 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Primrose is more common than 86.6% of them.

Origin

The surname derives from a place name in Fife, Scotland; Watson (1926) derived this from Pictish/Proto-Brythonic *prenn (“wood, tree”) + *rros (“moor, heath”). Taylor instead argued for Scottish Gaelic prím (“first”) + ros (“promontory”). Changed by folk etymology because of phonetic resemblance to primrose. The given name is one of the 19th-century flower names.

Primrose is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 1,199 people named Primrose in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 257,503 Americans. That is down 1.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,213.

#21,707
rank among US surnames
1,199
people in 2010
0.4
per 100,000 Americans
-1.2%
change since 2000 (was #20,367)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#21,700Schnitzler1,200257,288
#21,707Fino1,199257,503

Who is named Primrose

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

88% of people named Primrose identified as white (not Hispanic), 8.3% as Black (not Hispanic) and 1.8% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 88%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 8.3%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.8%
  • Two or more races 1.1%
The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Questions

Where does the surname Primrose come from?
The surname derives from a place name in Fife, Scotland; Watson (1926) derived this from Pictish/Proto-Brythonic *prenn (“wood, tree”) + *rros (“moor, heath”). Taylor instead argued for Scottish Gaelic prím (“first”) + ros (“promontory”). Changed by folk etymology because of phonetic resemblance…
How common is the surname Primrose?
1,199 people in the United States had the surname Primrose in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 257,503 Americans. It ranked 21,707th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Primrose?
In the 2010 Census, 88% of people named Primrose identified as white (not Hispanic), and 8.3% as Black (not Hispanic).
What type of surname is Primrose?
Primrose is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Primrose getting more or less common?
Less common. 1,213 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,199 in 2010, down 1.2%.
Is Primrose also a first name?
Yes. Primrose is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.