# Whitelaw (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/whitelaw/  
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 Old English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 1,210 |
| US rank (2010) | 21,568 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 255,162 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.5% (1,158 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Whitelow |

## Etymology

Habitational surname from Old English hwīt (“white”) + hlǣw (“hill, mound”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Whitelaw 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) | 77% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 18% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Two or more races | 2.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Whitelaw in the United Kingdom.

## People named Whitelaw

- Billie Whitelaw, British actress (1932–2014)

## Similar surnames

Whitley, Whitlow, Whittle, Whiteley, Whitely, Whitehill, Waddell, Woodall, Wheatley, Whatley, Woodley, Weddle.

## 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.