How common is the surname Whitfield?

29,962 people in the United States had the surname Whitfield in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 10,305 Americans. It ranked 1,171st of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Whitfield?

Mal Whitfield, American middle-distance runner and sprinter, followed by Lynn Whitfield.

Where is the surname Whitfield most common?

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

How do you pronounce Whitfield?

Whitfield is /ˈwɪtfiːld/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Whitfield getting more or less common?

More common. 28,475 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 29,962 in 2010, up 5.2%.

The surname Whitfield

An English place surname, carried by 29,962 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈwɪtfiːld/ 2 syllables Soundex W314

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Whitfield is more common than 99.3% of them.

Origin

English origin

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

Whitfield is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 29,962 people named Whitfield in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 10,305 Americans. That is up 5.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 28,475.

#1,171

rank among US surnames

29,962

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+5.2%

change since 2000 (was #1,125)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,162	Hendrickson	30,259	10,203
#1,163	Holley	30,231	10,213
#1,164	Cordero	30,158	10,238
#1,165	Franks	30,155	10,239
#1,166	Guillen	30,153	10,239
#1,168	Ratliff	30,083	10,263
#1,169	Sweet	30,051	10,274

Who is named Whitfield

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

50% of people named Whitfield identified as Black (not Hispanic), 45% as white (not Hispanic) and 3.0% as two or more races.

Black (not Hispanic) 50%
White (not Hispanic) 45%
Two or more races 3.0%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.4%

Compare: most common surnames among Black Americans.

Famous Whitfields

8 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Mal Whitfield
American middle-distance runner and sprinter, 1924–2015
Lynn Whitfield
American actress, born 1953
Beverley Whitfield
Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist (1954-1996)
Norman Whitfield
American songwriter, record producer (1940–2008)
Mark Whitfield
American musician, born 1966
Mitchell Whitfield
American actor, born 1964
Henry L. Whitfield
American politician (1868-1927)
James Whitfield
Archbishop of Baltimore (1770-1834)

Notable Whitfields come mostly from the United States (7) and Australia (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Whitfield

Whitefield

Whitfield has the Soundex code W314, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code W314.

Other English surnames

All 1,446 English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Whitfield come from?: From Old English hwīt (“white”) + feld (“field”).
How common is the surname Whitfield?: 29,962 people in the United States had the surname Whitfield in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 10,305 Americans. It ranked 1,171st of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Whitfield?: In the 2010 Census, 50% of people named Whitfield identified as Black (not Hispanic), and 45% as white (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Whitfield?: Mal Whitfield, American middle-distance runner and sprinter, followed by Lynn Whitfield.
Where is the surname Whitfield most common?: Wikidata records people named Whitfield in the United States and Australia.
How do you pronounce Whitfield?: Whitfield is /ˈwɪtfiːld/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Whitfield?: Whitfield is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Whitfield getting more or less common?: More common. 28,475 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 29,962 in 2010, up 5.2%.