# Seal (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/seal/  
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 | French |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 9,316 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,797 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 33,141 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.0% (8,960 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an English surname, spelling variant of Sale. * As an occupational English surname, related to seal. * As an occupational English surname, from Old French sele (“saddle”). * As an English nickname-derived surname, from seal (the animal). * As a Jewish surname, spelling variant or semantic loan of Siegel.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Seal 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) | 91% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 2.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.1% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.9% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Seal in the United States and the United Kingdom.

## People named Seal

- Barry Seals, American drug smuggler (1939–1986)
- Elizabeth Seal, British actress

## Similar surnames

Sell, Saul, Seale, Seely, Sala, Sale, Sealy, Sealey, Salo, Saelee, Sall, Selle.

## 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.