# Shepard (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/shepard/  
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 | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 39,430 |
| US rank (2010) | 882 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 7,830 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.9% (38,705 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Shepard 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) | 77% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 17% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.9% |
| Two or more races | 2.2% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Shepard in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Slovenia.

## People named Shepard

- Alan Shepard, American astronaut, first American in space, lunar explorer (1923–1998)
- Sam Shepard, American playwright and actor (1943–2017)
- Matthew Shepard, American LGBT student and murder victim
- Dax Shepard, American podcaster and actor
- Ernest Howard Shepard, British artist (1879-1976)
- Sara Shepard, American author
- Vonda Shepard, American singer (born 1963)
- Lucius Shepard, American writer (1943–2014)
- Roger Shepard, American psychologist (1929–2022)
- Patty Shepard, American actress (1945-2013)
- Richard Shepard, American screenwriter
- Elliott Fitch Shepard, American lawyer and newspaper editor

and 8 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Sheppard, Sheperd, Shepperd, Shepherd, Shephard, Shepardson, Seaford, Schubert, Seibert, Seifert, Swafford, Spradlin.

## 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.