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    The surname Underwood

    A place surname, carried by 57,064 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌwʊd/ 3 syllables Soundex U536

    Underwood: #588 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#10,001Dubon Underwood #588, 57,064 people Underwood: #588 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott Underwood #588, 57,064 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Underwood is more common than 99.6% of them.

    Origin

    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.

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

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 57,064 people named Underwood in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 5,411 Americans. That is up 1.9% since 2000, when the Census counted 55,973.

    #588
    rank among US surnames
    57,064
    people in 2010
    19
    per 100,000 Americans
    +1.9%
    change since 2000 (was #535)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #580Hoover57,4975,370
    #581Arias57,4775,372
    #583Mora57,4645,373
    #584Valenzuela57,3835,380
    #585Bryan57,1435,403
    #586Meyers57,1275,405
    #587Weiss57,1125,406

    Who is named Underwood

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

    79% of people named Underwood identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.2% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 79%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 15%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.2%
    • Two or more races 2.0%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 1.1%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Underwoods

    18 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Carrie Underwood
      American singer and actor (born 1983)
    • Blair Underwood
      American actor (born 1964)
    • Sam Underwood
      British actor, born 1987
    • Ron Underwood
      American director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1953)
    • Matthew Underwood
      American actor, born 1990
    • George Underwood
      Athletics competitor (1884–1943)
    • Ian Underwood
      American musician, born 1939
    • Jay Underwood
      American actor and pastor, born 1968
    • Ruth Underwood
      American musician, born 1946
    • 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)

    Notable Underwoods come mostly from the United States (16), the United Kingdom (1) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Underwood

    Underwood has the Soundex code U536, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code U536.

    Questions

    Where does the surname Underwood come from?
    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…
    How common is the surname Underwood?
    57,064 people in the United States had the surname Underwood in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 5,411 Americans. It ranked 588th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Underwood?
    In the 2010 Census, 79% of people named Underwood identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Underwood?
    Carrie Underwood, American singer and actor (born 1983), followed by Blair Underwood.
    Where is the surname Underwood most common?
    Wikidata records people named Underwood in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
    How do you pronounce Underwood?
    Underwood is /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌwʊd/, 3 syllables.
    What type of surname is Underwood?
    Underwood is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Underwood getting more or less common?
    More common. 55,973 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 57,064 in 2010, up 1.9%.