# Thorpe (surname)

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

A common habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 21,813 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,651 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 14,154 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.1% (20,960 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈθɔɹp/, 1 syllable |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Various places in England, from Old English þorp. See also thorpe.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Thorpe 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) | 69% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 25% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Thorpe in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Austria.

## People named Thorpe

- Jim Thorpe, American track and field athlete and baseball player (1888-1953)
- Ian Thorpe, Australian swimmer
- Richard Thorpe, American actor and film director (1896-1991)
- Otis Thorpe, American basketball player (born 1962)
- Alexis Thorpe, American actress
- Chris Thorpe, American luger
- Lidia Thorpe, Australian politician
- Jerry Thorpe, American film director, writer (1926–2018)
- Thomas Edward Thorpe, British chemist (1845–1925)
- Marion Stein, Austrian-born British concert pianist

## Similar surnames

Tharp, Thorp, Tharpe, Throop, Troupe, Torpey, Tripp, Trapp, Toribio, Troup, Traub, Tarpey.

## 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.