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The surname Spenser

An English occupational surname, carried by 670 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈspɛnsɚ/ 2 syllables Soundex S152

Spenser: #33,941 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Spenser #33,941, 670 people Spenser: #33,941 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Spenser #33,941, 670 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Spenser is more common than 79.1% of them.

Origin

English origin

From Middle English Spenser, from Middle English spenser (“spencer”), from spense (“spence”).

Spenser is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 670 people named Spenser in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 460,814 Americans. That is up 7.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 625.

#33,941
rank among US surnames
670
people in 2010
0.2
per 100,000 Americans
+7.2%
change since 2000 (was #34,308)

Who is named Spenser

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

66% of people named Spenser identified as white (not Hispanic), 22% as Black (not Hispanic) and 5.5% as two or more races.

  • White (not Hispanic) 66%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 22%
  • Two or more races 5.5%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.4%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 1.6%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 1.0%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Surnames that sound like Spenser

Spenser has the Soundex code S152, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S152.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Spenser come from?
From Middle English Spenser, from Middle English spenser (“spencer”), from spense (“spence”).
How common is the surname Spenser?
670 people in the United States had the surname Spenser in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 460,814 Americans. It ranked 33,941st of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Spenser?
In the 2010 Census, 66% of people named Spenser identified as white (not Hispanic), and 22% as Black (not Hispanic).
How do you pronounce Spenser?
Spenser is /ˈspɛnsɚ/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Spenser?
Spenser is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Spenser getting more or less common?
More common. 625 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 670 in 2010, up 7.2%.
What are other spellings of Spenser?
Spencer.