How common is the surname Waddell?

21,301 people in the United States had the surname Waddell in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 14,494 Americans. It ranked 1,691st of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Waddell?

Justine Waddell, British actress, followed by Rube Waddell.

Where is the surname Waddell most common?

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

Is the surname Waddell getting more or less common?

More common. 20,885 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 21,301 in 2010, up 2.0%.

The surname Waddell

An English place surname, carried by 21,301 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex W340

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Waddell is more common than 99% of them.

Origin

English origin

Various origins: * A variant of the Scottish surname Weddle. * An English topographic surname for someone who lived at the hill where woad grew, from Old English wād (“woad”) + hyll (“hill”).

Waddell 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 21,301 people named Waddell in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 14,494 Americans. That is up 2.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 20,885.

#1,691

rank among US surnames

21,301

people in 2010

7.2

per 100,000 Americans

+2%

change since 2000 (was #1,576)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,682	Bower	21,445	14,397
#1,683	Miner	21,439	14,401
#1,684	Brantley	21,395	14,431
#1,685	Sheets	21,384	14,438
#1,687	Doss	21,366	14,450
#1,689	Stiles	21,357	14,456
#1,690	Willard	21,352	14,460

Who is named Waddell

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

81% of people named Waddell identified as white (not Hispanic), 15% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.1% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 81%
Black (not Hispanic) 15%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.1%
Two or more races 1.7%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Waddells

3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Justine Waddell
British actress, born 1975
Rube Waddell
American baseball player (1876-1914)
Laurence Waddell
British explorer (1854-1938)

Notable Waddells come mostly from the United Kingdom (1), the United States (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 Waddell

Waddell has the Soundex code W340, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code W340.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Waddell come from?: Various origins: * A variant of the Scottish surname Weddle. * An English topographic surname for someone who lived at the hill where woad grew, from Old English wād (“woad”) + hyll (“hill”).
How common is the surname Waddell?: 21,301 people in the United States had the surname Waddell in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 14,494 Americans. It ranked 1,691st of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Waddell?: In the 2010 Census, 81% of people named Waddell identified as white (not Hispanic), and 15% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Waddell?: Justine Waddell, British actress, followed by Rube Waddell.
Where is the surname Waddell most common?: Wikidata records people named Waddell in the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
What type of surname is Waddell?: Waddell is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Waddell getting more or less common?: More common. 20,885 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 21,301 in 2010, up 2.0%.