# Swift (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/swift/  
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, originally a nickname for a swift or quick person.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | nickname, from a description or nickname of an ancestor |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 24,249 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,473 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 12,732 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.4% (23,685 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /swɪft/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Derived from swift, from Middle English swift, from Old English swift, from swīfan, from Proto-Germanic *swībaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kswéybʰ-e-ti, from *ksweybʰ-.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Swift 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) | 78% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 16% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.9% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Swift in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Ireland, Barbados and Kingdom of the Netherlands.

## People named Swift

- Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter (born 1989)
- Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish satirist and essayist (1667–1745)
- Lewis A. Swift, American astronomer
- Clive Swift, British actor (1936–2019)
- Stromile Swift, American basketball player
- David Swift, American director and producer (1919-2001)
- Jeremy Swift, British actor
- Stephanie Swift, American pornographic actress
- Austin Swift, American actor
- Connor Swift, British cyclist
- Edward D. Swift, American astronomer (1870–1935)
- Gustavus Franklin Swift, American entrepreneur in the meat industry

and 11 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Speed, Spaeth, Spade, Swoboda, Spada, Sepeda, Spady, Speth, Sabado, Spath, Shibata, Subedi.

## 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.