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

Firestone, 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 Firestone surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Firestone in America

Firestone is the 7434th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Firestone surname appeared 4,480 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Firestone.

We can also compare 2010 data for Firestone 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 Firestone

The surname Firestone has its origins in England, where it first emerged in the 13th century. It is an occupational name derived from the Old English words "fyr" meaning fire and "stan" meaning stone, likely referring to someone who worked as a maker or seller of hearthstones or firestones used for lighting fires.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire from 1273, which lists a Richard Fireston. The surname also appears in various tax records and parish registers throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, with spellings such as Fyreston, Firestane, and Firston.

During the medieval period, the Firestone family was primarily concentrated in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk in East Anglia. The name is associated with several place names in these regions, such as Firestone End in Oxfordshire and Firestone Hill in Gloucestershire.

Notable individuals with the surname Firestone include William Firestone (c. 1370-1440), a landowner and yeoman from Norfolk, and John Firestone (1542-1612), a wealthy merchant and alderman in the city of Norwich.

In the 17th century, the Firestone family expanded its presence throughout England, with branches established in London, Yorkshire, and the West Midlands. One prominent figure from this era was Sir Thomas Firestone (1615-1678), a Member of Parliament and supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War.

As the name spread across Britain, it also found its way to the American colonies in the 18th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in America is Benjamin Firestone (1723-1798), who emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in the 1740s and became a prosperous farmer and miller.

Other notable individuals with the Firestone surname include Harvey Firestone (1868-1938), the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, and Clark Firestone (1887-1957), a prominent American businessman and diplomat who served as Ambassador to Cuba and Mexico.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Firestone

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources 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!