# Underwood (surname)

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

A surname from Middle English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 57,064 |
| US rank (2010) | 588 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 5,411 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.9% (55,973 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌwʊd/, 3 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

The name is from England or Scotland, and from Middle English. The surname is sometimes habitational, used by someone who lived in any of several places of the same name. Otherwise it is topographic, referring to someone who lived near a wood. The common noun comes from the name of the manufacturer, after John T. Underwood, one of its founders.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Underwood 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) | 79% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 15% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 1.1% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Where

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

## People named Underwood

- Carrie Underwood, American singer and actor (born 1983)
- Blair Underwood, American actor (born 1964)
- Sam Underwood, British actor
- Ron Underwood, American director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1953)
- Matthew Underwood, American actor
- George Underwood, athletics competitor (1884–1943)
- Ian Underwood, American musician
- Jay Underwood, American actor and pastor
- Ruth Underwood, American musician
- Cecilia Underwood, 1st Duchess of Inverness, British duchess; second wife of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1785-1873)
- Oscar Underwood, American politician (1862–1929)
- Cecil H. Underwood, American politician (1922–2008)

and 6 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Underhill.

## 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.