Emmitt last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Emmitt

A surname derived from a diminutive form of the given name "Edmund".

Emmitt, 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 Emmitt surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Emmitt in America

Emmitt is the 41886th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Emmitt surname appeared 519 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Emmitt.

We can also compare 2010 data for Emmitt 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 41886 38395 8.70%
Count 519 542 -4.34%
Proportion per 100k 0.18 0.20 -10.53%

The history of the last name Emmitt

The surname Emmitt is of English origin, derived from the Old English pre-7th century personal name "Emmet" or "Emmot." This name is believed to have emerged from the Germanic root "Amat," meaning "strength" or "vigor." Emmitt is a variant spelling of the name Emmett, which itself is a diminutive form of the name Emma or Ammonia.

The earliest recorded instances of the surname Emmitt date back to the late 12th century in various counties across England, including Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Lincolnshire. It is possible that the name may have been mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive record of landholdings and properties in England commissioned by William the Conqueror.

One notable bearer of the Emmitt surname was Sir Thomas Emmitt (1600-1669), an English politician and Member of Parliament for Grantham in Lincolnshire during the 17th century. Another was John Emmitt (1642-1730), an English Quaker minister and writer from Yorkshire, who authored several religious works.

In the United States, the name Emmitt can be traced back to the early colonial period, with some of the earliest recorded examples being William Emmitt (1692-1767), a Massachusetts settler, and John Emmitt (1710-1789), a landowner in Virginia. The surname Emmitt has also been associated with several place names in England, such as Emmitt's Green in Suffolk and Emmitt's Field in Derbyshire.

Among the more famous individuals with the surname Emmitt is Emmitt Smith (born 1969), a former professional American football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He played his entire career with the Dallas Cowboys and retired as the NFL's all-time leading rusher at the time.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Emmitt

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

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 Emmitt was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 77.65% 403
Non-Hispanic Black Only 18.50% 96
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races (S)% (S)
Hispanic Origin 2.50% 13

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

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 77.65% 81.55% -4.90%
Black 18.50% 15.13% 20.04%
Asian and Pacific Islander (S)% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races (S)% 1.29% (S)%
Hispanic 2.50% 1.11% 77.01%

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

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

Reference this page

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"Emmitt last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/emmitt-surname-popularity/.

"Emmitt last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/emmitt-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

Emmitt last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/emmitt-surname-popularity/.

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