How common is the surname Waits?

5,661 people in the United States had the surname Waits in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 54,539 Americans. It ranked 6,059th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Waits?

Tom Waits, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1949).

Where is the surname Waits most common?

Wikidata records people named Waits in the United States.

Is the surname Waits getting more or less common?

More common. 5,644 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 5,661 in 2010, up 0.3%.

The surname Waits

An occupational surname, carried by 5,661 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex W320

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Waits is more common than 96.3% of them.

Origin

An English surname originating as an occupation, a variant of Waite.

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

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 5,661 people named Waits in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 54,539 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 5,644.

#6,059

rank among US surnames

5,661

people in 2010

1.9

per 100,000 Americans

+0.3%

change since 2000 (was #5,642)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#6,054	Rahn	5,668	54,472
#6,057	Northrup	5,663	54,520
#6,058	Witkowski	5,662	54,529
#6,059	Waits	5,661	54,539

Who is named Waits

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

84% of people named Waits identified as white (not Hispanic), 12% as Black (not Hispanic) and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 84%
Black (not Hispanic) 12%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
Two or more races 1.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.2%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Waitss

1 notable person on Wikidata, most written-about first

Tom Waits
American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1949)

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Waits

Waits has the Soundex code W320, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code W320.

Questions

How common is the surname Waits?: 5,661 people in the United States had the surname Waits in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 54,539 Americans. It ranked 6,059th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Waits?: In the 2010 Census, 84% of people named Waits identified as white (not Hispanic), and 12% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Waits?: Tom Waits, American singer-songwriter and actor (born 1949).
Where is the surname Waits most common?: Wikidata records people named Waits in the United States.
What type of surname is Waits?: Waits is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Waits getting more or less common?: More common. 5,644 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 5,661 in 2010, up 0.3%.