# Wagstaff (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/wagstaff/  
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 | English |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 3,037 |
| US rank (2010) | 10,553 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 101,661 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.0% (3,008 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Wagstaffe, Wagster |

## Etymology

From Middle English waggen (“to move up and down”) + staff (“staff, rod”), an occupational surname for an official who carried a staff.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Wagstaff 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) | 82% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 14% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Two or more races | 1.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Wagstaff in the United States and Australia.

## People named Wagstaff

- Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff, American poet
- Jesse Wagstaff, Australian basketball player (born 1986)

## Similar surnames

Westbrook, Westfall, Westphal, Westover, Westberry, Westbrooks, Westberg, Westhoff, Westby, Westfield, Westbury.

## 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.