How common is the surname Wood?

250,715 people in the United States had the surname Wood in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 1,231 Americans. It ranked 84th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Wood?

Elijah Wood, American actor (born 1981), followed by Natalie Wood.

Where is the surname Wood most common?

Wikidata records people named Wood in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom and 3 other countries.

Is the surname Wood getting more or less common?

More common. 247,299 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 250,715 in 2010, up 1.4%.

The surname Wood

A place surname, the 84th most common in the United States.

Pronounced /wʊd/ 1 syllable Soundex W300

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Wood is more common than 99.9% of them.

Origin

An English topographic surname for someone who lived in or near a wood.

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

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 250,715 people named Wood in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 1,231 Americans. That is up 1.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 247,299.

#84

rank among US surnames

250,715

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+1.4%

change since 2000 (was #75)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#75	Howard	264,826	1,166
#76	Ramos	263,464	1,172
#77	Kim	262,352	1,177
#78	Cox	261,231	1,182
#79	Ward	260,464	1,185
#80	Richardson	259,798	1,188
#81	Watson	252,579	1,222

Who is named Wood

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

89% of people named Wood identified as white (not Hispanic), 5.6% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 89%
Black (not Hispanic) 5.6%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
Two or more races 1.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.8%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Woods

88 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Elijah Wood
American actor (born 1981)
Natalie Wood
American actress (1938–1981)
Evan Rachel Wood
American actress (born 1987)
Grant Wood
American painter (1891–1942)
Ed Wood
American screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author, and film editor, 1924–1978
Lana Wood
American actress, born 1946
Peggy Wood
American actress of stage, film and television (1892-1978)
Chris Wood
American actor, born 1988
Leonard Wood
5th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army (1860-1927)
Robert W. Wood
American physicist and inventor (1868–1955)
Victoria Wood
British comedian (1953–2016)
Andrew Wood
American musician and singer (1966–1990)

Notable Woods come mostly from the United States (67), Australia (11) and the United Kingdom (6).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Wood

Wood has the Soundex code W300, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code W300.

Questions

How common is the surname Wood?: 250,715 people in the United States had the surname Wood in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 1,231 Americans. It ranked 84th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Wood?: In the 2010 Census, 89% of people named Wood identified as white (not Hispanic), and 5.6% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Wood?: Elijah Wood, American actor (born 1981), followed by Natalie Wood.
Where is the surname Wood most common?: Wikidata records people named Wood in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom and 3 other countries.
How do you pronounce Wood?: Wood is /wʊd/, one syllable.
What type of surname is Wood?: Wood is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Wood getting more or less common?: More common. 247,299 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 250,715 in 2010, up 1.4%.