# Sheffield (surname)

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

A habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 19,738 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,817 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 15,642 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.0% (18,983 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈʃɛfiːld/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From the name of the River Sheaf, which is from Old English scēaþ (“boundary”), + Old English feld (“field, open land”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Sheffield 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) | 76% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 19% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.4% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.8% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

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

## People named Sheffield

- Frederick Sheffield, American rower (1902–1971)
- Rob Sheffield, American music journalist (born 1966)
- Johnny Sheffield, American actor (1931-2010)
- Magnus Sheffield, American cyclist
- Charlotte Sheffield, American beauty queen (1936–2016)
- Gary Sheffield, American professional baseball outfielder (born 1968)
- Jeremy Sheffield, British actor
- Chris Sheffield, American actor
- Scott Sheffield, American mathematician
- William Paine Sheffield Sr., American politician (1820-1907)

## Similar surnames

Shiflet, Shifflet, Schofield, Seefeldt, Spaulding, Spalding, Shifflett, Scofield, Seabolt, Shiflett, Sublett, Saffold.

## 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.