# Sawyer (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/sawyer/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname originating as an occupation for someone who made a living from sawing wood.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 49,028 |
| US rank (2010) | 707 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 6,297 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.2% (47,979 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an English occupational surname, from sawyer (“one who saws”). Senses loaned from various languages include Jewish/German Seger and Sager, Slovene Žagar. * As a French surname, variant of Seguin.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Sawyer 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) | 81% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 14% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Similar surnames

Sayer, Sauer, Sayre, Swarey, Sierra, Soria, Shore, Sherry, Serra, Shirey, Scheer, Schauer.

## 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.