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

Blackstone, 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 Blackstone surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Blackstone in America

Blackstone is the 8946th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Blackstone surname appeared 3,659 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 Blackstone.

We can also compare 2010 data for Blackstone 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 Blackstone

The surname Blackstone originated in England during the medieval period. It is a locational name derived from various place names containing the elements "black" and "stone," which could refer to the dark color of stones found in a particular area or the presence of a black stone structure or landmark.

One of the earliest recorded mentions of the surname Blackstone can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire from the year 1208, where a person named William de Blakestan is listed. This spelling variation suggests that the name may have originated from a place called Blackstone or Blakeston.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, several places with similar names are mentioned, such as Blachestun (Derbyshire) and Blachestone (Worcestershire). These place names could have been the sources from which the surname Blackstone later derived.

The earliest known bearer of the surname Blackstone was Sir William Blackstone (c. 1595-1675), an English judge and politician who served as a Member of Parliament for several constituencies during the reign of Charles I.

Another notable figure with the surname Blackstone was Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), an English jurist, judge, and professor who is renowned for his influential work, "Commentaries on the Laws of England," which became a seminal text on English common law.

In the 16th century, a family of Blackstones owned lands in Woodcote, Oxfordshire. Erasmus Blackstone (c. 1525-1598) was a member of this family and served as a Member of Parliament for Ipswich in 1558.

During the English Civil War, John Blackstone (1615-1679) was a lawyer and judge who supported the Parliamentarian cause and served as Chief Justice of the King's Bench under Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate.

In the United States, one of the earliest recorded Blackstones was William Blackstone (1595-1675), who immigrated from England to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1623 and became a prominent landowner and colonial magistrate.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Blackstone

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

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 Blackstone 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 Blackstone 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 Blackstone was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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