How common is the surname Wagstaff?

3,037 people in the United States had the surname Wagstaff in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 101,661 Americans. It ranked 10,553rd of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Wagstaff?

Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff, American poet, followed by Jesse Wagstaff.

Where is the surname Wagstaff most common?

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

Is the surname Wagstaff getting more or less common?

More common. 3,008 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 3,037 in 2010, up 1.0%.

The surname Wagstaff

An English occupational surname, carried by 3,037 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex W231

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Wagstaff is more common than 93.5% of them.

Origin

English origin

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

Wagstaff is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

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 3,037 people named Wagstaff in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 101,661 Americans. That is up 1.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 3,008.

#10,553

rank among US surnames

3,037

people in 2010

1.0

per 100,000 Americans

+1%

change since 2000 (was #9,895)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#10,547	Garrick	3,040	101,561
#10,548	Wilkin	3,039	101,594
#10,552	Basler	3,038	101,628
#10,553	Hilty	3,037	101,661
#10,555	Magness	3,036	101,695
#10,560	Biggerstaff	3,035	101,728

Who is named Wagstaff

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

82% of people named Wagstaff identified as white (not Hispanic), 14% as Black (not Hispanic) and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 82%
Black (not Hispanic) 14%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
Two or more races 1.1%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Wagstaffs

2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff
American poet, 1886–1967
Jesse Wagstaff
Australian basketball player (born 1986)

Notable Wagstaffs come mostly from the United States (1) and Australia (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Wagstaffe
Wagster

Wagstaff has the Soundex code W231, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code W231.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Wagstaff come from?: From Middle English waggen (“to move up and down”) + staff (“staff, rod”), an occupational surname for an official who carried a staff.
How common is the surname Wagstaff?: 3,037 people in the United States had the surname Wagstaff in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 101,661 Americans. It ranked 10,553rd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Wagstaff?: In the 2010 Census, 82% of people named Wagstaff identified as white (not Hispanic), and 14% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Wagstaff?: Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff, American poet, followed by Jesse Wagstaff.
Where is the surname Wagstaff most common?: Wikidata records people named Wagstaff in the United States and Australia.
What type of surname is Wagstaff?: Wagstaff is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Wagstaff getting more or less common?: More common. 3,008 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 3,037 in 2010, up 1.0%.
What are other spellings of Wagstaff?: Wagstaffe and Wagster.