# Water (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/water/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | patronymic, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 363 |
| US rank (2010) | 56,310 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 850,539 people |
| Change since 2000 | -6.4% (388 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As an English surname, from the medieval pronunciation of the name Walter. * As an English and German surname, from the noun water. * As an Irish surname, adopted as a translation from Ó Fuartháin (see Foran), mistaken for Ó Fuaruisce (“descendant of cold water”), from fuar + uisce.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Water 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) | 51% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 32% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 6.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.2% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 6.1% |
| Two or more races | 2.8% |

## Similar surnames

Witter, Withrow, Woodrow, Whittier, Wieder, Whitehair, Wetter, Witherow, Wittwer, Whitter.

## 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.