Pennington Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin

In this article we'll look at the origin and meaning of the surname Pennington and how popular it is in the United States. We'll also look at the race and ethnic origin of people in the United States who are named Pennington.

Pennington, like all of the names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Pennington surname is from the 2010 census data.

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Where Does Pennington Rank in the Most Common U.S. Names?

According to the data, Pennington is ranked #846 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

The Pennington surname appeared 40,854 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 13.85 would have the surname Pennington.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pennington to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 846 779 8.25%
Count 40,854 40,339 1.27%
Proportion per 100k 13.85 14.95 -7.64%

Race and Ethnic Origin of People with the Last Name Pennington

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Pennington.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups: "White only", "Black only", "American Indian and Alaskan Native only", "Asian and Pacific Islander only", "Two or More Races", and "Hispanic".

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Pennington was:

  • 87.86%, or 35,894 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic White Only".
  • 7.23%, or 2,954 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Black Only".
  • 0.41%, or 168 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only".
  • 0.53%, or 217 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native".
  • 1.76%, or 719 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races".
  • 2.20%, or 899 total occurrences, were "Hispanic Origin".

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Pennington has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 87.86% 89.36% -1.69%
Black 7.23% 7.05% 2.52%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.41% 0.32% 24.66%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.53% 0.53% 0.00%
Two or More Races 1.76% 1.46% 18.63%
Hispanic 2.20% 1.29% 52.15%

Data Source(s)

All of the data on this page is sourced from the Decennial Census survey, from the United States Census Bureau.

Link To or Reference This Page

We spent a lot of time downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

  • "Pennington Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com. Accessed on March 28, 2024. https://namecensus.com/last-names/pennington-surname-popularity/.

  • "Pennington Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/pennington-surname-popularity/. Accessed 28 March, 2024

  • Pennington Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from https://namecensus.com/last-names/pennington-surname-popularity/.