Find out how popular the last name Bethune is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Bethune.

Bethune, like all of the last 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 Bethune surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Bethune in America

Bethune is the 9437th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Bethune surname appeared 3,447 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Bethune.

We can also compare 2010 data for Bethune 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.

The history of the last name Bethune

The surname Bethune originated in France and can be traced back to the 12th century. Its roots lie in the Old French words "beau" meaning beautiful and "tun" meaning an enclosed settlement or village. It was likely a descriptive name given to someone who lived in or came from a picturesque village.

The earliest known record of the name Bethune appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, a survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. This suggests that people with this surname may have migrated from France to England as early as the 11th century.

In the 13th century, records show a nobleman named Robert de Bethune who fought alongside King Edward I in the Wars of Scottish Independence. He was born around 1245 and died in 1305.

Another notable bearer of this name was Maximilien de Bethune, Duke of Sully, a French nobleman and statesman who served as the chief minister of King Henry IV in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He was born in 1559 and died in 1641.

In the 18th century, George Washington Bethune, a Scottish-American minister and educator, was born in 1805. He co-founded the New York Sabbath School Association and played a significant role in shaping the American education system.

In the 19th century, Mary Bethune McLeod, an American educator and civil rights activist, was born in 1875. She founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute, which later became Bethune-Cookman University, and was a prominent leader in the African-American community.

Another well-known figure with this surname was Norman Bethune, a Canadian physician and humanitarian who was born in 1890. He is celebrated for his service in the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, where he established mobile medical units and trained medical personnel.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Bethune

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

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:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

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

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 Bethune has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Bethune was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Bethune, please contact us.

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