How common is the surname Sykes?

27,546 people in the United States had the surname Sykes in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 11,208 Americans. It ranked 1,276th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Sykes?

Wanda Sykes, American comedian, writer, actress and voice artist, followed by Roosevelt Sykes.

Where is the surname Sykes most common?

Wikidata records people named Sykes in the United States and the United Kingdom.

How do you pronounce Sykes?

Sykes is /saɪks/, one syllable.

Is the surname Sykes getting more or less common?

More common. 26,425 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 27,546 in 2010, up 4.2%.

The surname Sykes

An English place surname, carried by 27,546 people in the United States.

Pronounced /saɪks/ 1 syllable Soundex S220

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Sykes is more common than 99.2% of them.

Origin

English origin

From Middle English sike (“marshy stream, gutter, ditch”).

Sykes is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

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 27,546 people named Sykes in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 11,208 Americans. That is up 4.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 26,425.

#1,276

rank among US surnames

27,546

people in 2010

9.3

per 100,000 Americans

+4.2%

change since 2000 (was #1,214)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,267	Tuttle	27,751	11,126
#1,268	Denton	27,742	11,129
#1,269	Magee	27,720	11,138
#1,270	Jamison	27,697	11,147
#1,271	Lyon	27,690	11,150
#1,272	Locke	27,643	11,169
#1,273	Puckett	27,627	11,175

Who is named Sykes

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

54% of people named Sykes identified as white (not Hispanic), 41% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 54%
Black (not Hispanic) 41%
Two or more races 2.4%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.0%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.4%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.3%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Sykess

9 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Wanda Sykes
American comedian, writer, actress and voice artist, born 1964
Roosevelt Sykes
American blues musician, 1906–1983
Keifer Sykes
American basketball player (born 1993)
Brittney Sykes
American basketball player (born 1994)
Brenda Sykes
American actress, born 1949
Emilia Sykes
American politician (born 1986)
James Sykes
American politician (1761-1822)
Richard Sykes
Biochemist, born 1942
Frederick Sykes
British Army general (1877-1954)

Notable Sykess come mostly from the United States (7) and the United Kingdom (2).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Sykes

Sikes

Sykes has the Soundex code S220, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S220.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Sykes come from?: From Middle English sike (“marshy stream, gutter, ditch”).
How common is the surname Sykes?: 27,546 people in the United States had the surname Sykes in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 11,208 Americans. It ranked 1,276th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Sykes?: In the 2010 Census, 54% of people named Sykes identified as white (not Hispanic), and 41% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Sykes?: Wanda Sykes, American comedian, writer, actress and voice artist, followed by Roosevelt Sykes.
Where is the surname Sykes most common?: Wikidata records people named Sykes in the United States and the United Kingdom.
How do you pronounce Sykes?: Sykes is /saɪks/, one syllable.
What type of surname is Sykes?: Sykes is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Sykes getting more or less common?: More common. 26,425 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 27,546 in 2010, up 4.2%.