# Whiston (surname)

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

A habitational surname from Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 372 |
| US rank (2010) | 55,255 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 829,961 people |
| Change since 2000 | -7.0% (400 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwɪs.tən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | Whisson |

## Etymology

Various origins: * The villages in Merseyside and South Yorkshire are named from Old English hwīt (“white”) + stān (“stone”). * The villages in Staffordshire are named from the unattested Old English personal name *Witi + -s- + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”). * The village in Northamptonshire is probably named from Old English Hwiċċe (“a local tribe”) + -s- + tūn (“enclosure; settlement, town”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Whiston 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) | 93% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 4.0% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.6% |

## Similar surnames

Weston, Wigton, Westmoreland, Wisdom, Wightman, Westman, Westendorf, Westmorland.

## 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.