# Snowball (surname)

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

A 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) | 580 |
| US rank (2010) | 38,214 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 532,320 people |
| Change since 2000 | +11% (525 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From snow + ball, probably a nickname for someone who had a patch of white hair or a pale bald patch, amid dark hair.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Snowball 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) | 63% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 5.2% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 20% |
| Two or more races | 6.2% |

## Similar surnames

Sample, Samples, Sanfilippo, Snavely, Shamblin, Schoenfeld, Schnabel, Semple, Snively, Sampley, Schonfeld, Schoenfelder.

## 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.