# Whitfield (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/whitfield/  
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) | 29,962 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,171 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 10,305 people |
| Change since 2000 | +5.2% (28,475 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwɪtfiːld/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English hwīt (“white”) + feld (“field”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Whitfield 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) | 45% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 50% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.4% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 3.0% |

## Where

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

## People named Whitfield

- Mal Whitfield, American middle-distance runner and sprinter
- Lynn Whitfield, American actress
- Beverley Whitfield, Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist (1954-1996)
- Norman Whitfield, American songwriter, record producer (1940–2008)
- Mark Whitfield, American musician
- Mitchell Whitfield, American actor
- Henry L. Whitfield, American politician (1868-1927)
- James Whitfield, Archbishop of Baltimore (1770-1834)

## Similar surnames

Whitefield.

## 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.