How common is the surname Root?

20,284 people in the United States had the surname Root in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 15,221 Americans. It ranked 1,770th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Root?

In the 2010 Census, 94% of people named Root identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Is the surname Root getting more or less common?

More common. 20,001 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 20,284 in 2010, up 1.4%.

What are other spellings of Root?

Rouet, Rout, Roots, Roote and Rootes.

The surname Root

A surname, carried by 20,284 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex R300

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Root is more common than 98.9% of them.

Origin

An English surname from Middle English from a byname from Middle English rote (“glad”).

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 20,284 people named Root in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 15,221 Americans. That is up 1.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 20,001.

#1,770

rank among US surnames

20,284

people in 2010

6.9

per 100,000 Americans

+1.4%

change since 2000 (was #1,641)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,763	Carlisle	20,365	15,161
#1,764	Hargrove	20,360	15,164
#1,765	Keenan	20,353	15,170
#1,766	North	20,343	15,177
#1,767	Dasilva	20,338	15,181
#1,768	Ledesma	20,311	15,201
#1,769	Messer	20,306	15,205

Who is named Root

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

94% of people named Root identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.6% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 94%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Two or more races 1.6%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.8%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Rouet
Rout
Roots
Roote
Rootes

Surnames that sound like Root

Root has the Soundex code R300, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R300.

Questions

How common is the surname Root?: 20,284 people in the United States had the surname Root in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 15,221 Americans. It ranked 1,770th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Root?: In the 2010 Census, 94% of people named Root identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Is the surname Root getting more or less common?: More common. 20,001 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 20,284 in 2010, up 1.4%.
What are other spellings of Root?: Rouet, Rout, Roots, Roote and Rootes.