Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Whittier

    An occupational surname, carried by 2,589 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈwɪtiɚ/ 3 syllables Soundex W360

    Whittier: #12,047 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Whittier #12,047, 2,589 people Whittier: #12,047 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Whittier #12,047, 2,589 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Whittier is more common than 92.6% of them.

    Origin

    From whityer (“a whiter, whitester”, occupational name).

    Whittier is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 2,589 people named Whittier in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 119,253 Americans. That is up 5.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 2,457.

    #12,047
    rank among US surnames
    2,589
    people in 2010
    0.9
    per 100,000 Americans
    +5.4%
    change since 2000 (was #11,696)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #12,040Fredricks2,592119,115
    #12,042Oliveras2,591119,161
    #12,043Heckler2,590119,207
    #12,047Whittier2,589119,253
    #12,048Branscum2,588119,299
    #12,055Evens2,587119,345

    Who is named Whittier

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

    83% of people named Whittier identified as white (not Hispanic), 12% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.2% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 83%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 12%
    • Two or more races 2.2%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.4%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Whittiers

    2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • John Greenleaf Whittier
      American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery (1807-1892)
    • Pauline Whittier
      Amateur golfer (1876–1946)

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Whittier

    Whittier has the Soundex code W360, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code W360.

    Questions

    Where does the surname Whittier come from?
    From whityer (“a whiter, whitester”, occupational name).
    How common is the surname Whittier?
    2,589 people in the United States had the surname Whittier in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 119,253 Americans. It ranked 12,047th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Whittier?
    In the 2010 Census, 83% of people named Whittier identified as white (not Hispanic), and 12% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Whittier?
    John Greenleaf Whittier, American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery (1807-1892), followed by Pauline Whittier.
    Where is the surname Whittier most common?
    Wikidata records people named Whittier in the United States.
    How do you pronounce Whittier?
    Whittier is /ˈwɪtiɚ/, 3 syllables.
    What type of surname is Whittier?
    Whittier is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
    Is the surname Whittier getting more or less common?
    More common. 2,457 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 2,589 in 2010, up 5.4%.