How common is the surname Sherlock?

5,211 people in the United States had the surname Sherlock in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 59,249 Americans. It ranked 6,511th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Sherlock?

In the 2010 Census, 93% of people named Sherlock identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

How do you pronounce Sherlock?

Sherlock is /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Sherlock getting more or less common?

More common. 4,988 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 5,211 in 2010, up 4.5%.

Is Sherlock also a first name?

Yes. Sherlock is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Sherlock

A nickname surname, carried by 5,211 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/ 2 syllables Soundex S642

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Sherlock is more common than 96% of them.

Origin

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.

Sherlock is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 5,211 people named Sherlock in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 59,249 Americans. That is up 4.5% since 2000, when the Census counted 4,988.

#6,511

rank among US surnames

5,211

people in 2010

1.8

per 100,000 Americans

+4.5%

change since 2000 (was #6,293)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#6,502	Alvey	5,220	59,147
#6,503	Cashman	5,219	59,158
#6,504	Dave	5,218	59,169
#6,505	Pattison	5,217	59,181
#6,508	Kahl	5,215	59,203
#6,509	Hulbert	5,214	59,215
#6,510	Robin	5,212	59,237

Who is named Sherlock

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

93% of people named Sherlock identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.6% as Black (not Hispanic).

White (not Hispanic) 93%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.3%
Black (not Hispanic) 1.6%
Two or more races 1.4%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.4%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Sherlock

Scurlock

Sherlock has the Soundex code S642, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S642.

Questions

Where does the surname Sherlock come from?: 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…
How common is the surname Sherlock?: 5,211 people in the United States had the surname Sherlock in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 59,249 Americans. It ranked 6,511th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Sherlock?: In the 2010 Census, 93% of people named Sherlock identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.3% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
How do you pronounce Sherlock?: Sherlock is /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Sherlock?: Sherlock is a nickname surname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor.
Is the surname Sherlock getting more or less common?: More common. 4,988 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 5,211 in 2010, up 4.5%.
Is Sherlock also a first name?: Yes. Sherlock is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.