# Sherlock (surname)

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

An English surname transferred from the nickname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 5,211 |
| US rank (2010) | 6,511 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 59,249 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.5% (4,988 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Supposedly from an Old English scir-locc (“bright-lock”). One of a group of surnames originally denoting hair colour, parallel to Blacklock, Harlock (Old English har (“grey”)), Silverlock. In the sense of “a detective”, from Sherlock Holmes. In the computing verb sense, refers to the software Sherlock, which in 2002 came to replicate some of the features of an earlier complementary program called Watson.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Sherlock 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) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.6% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.4% |

## Similar surnames

Scurlock, Searles, Sorrells, Surles, Sorrels, Searls.

## 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.