Holdsworth last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Holdsworth

Derived from a place name meaning "Hōld's enclosure" in Old English, referring to a person who lived there.

Holdsworth, 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 Holdsworth surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Holdsworth in America

Holdsworth is the 14870th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Holdsworth surname appeared 1,991 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 Holdsworth.

We can also compare 2010 data for Holdsworth 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 14870 14115 5.21%
Count 1,991 1,956 1.77%
Proportion per 100k 0.67 0.73 -8.57%

The history of the last name Holdsworth

The surname Holdsworth is of English origin, derived from a place name in the West Yorkshire region of England. It is believed to have originated in the medieval period, around the 12th or 13th century.

The name Holdsworth is a combination of two Old English words: "holh," meaning a hollow or valley, and "worth," meaning an enclosed settlement or farm. This suggests that the name likely referred to someone who lived in or came from a settlement located in a small valley or hollow.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Holdsworth can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire from 1379, which mention a John de Holdsworth. The name also appears in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Returns of 1379, indicating its presence in the region during that time.

In the 16th century, the name Holdsworth was sometimes spelled variations like Holdesworth or Houldsworth, reflecting the fluid nature of spelling conventions in earlier centuries.

Notable individuals with the surname Holdsworth throughout history include:

  1. Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), an English theologian and academic who served as the Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

  2. Arthur Holdsworth (1798-1886), a British politician and member of Parliament for the rotten borough of Dartmouth from 1847 to 1857.

  3. Sir William Holdsworth (1871-1944), an English legal historian and Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford University.

  4. Sir William Arthur Holdsworth (1833-1907), a British colonial administrator who served as the Governor of the British Virgin Islands from 1896 to 1901.

  5. Sir William Wort Holdsworth (1853-1924), a British lawyer and judge who served as the Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements from 1911 to 1915.

The name Holdsworth is also associated with several place names in England, such as Holdsworth in West Yorkshire, which likely took its name from the original settlers or landowners in the area.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Holdsworth

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

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 Holdsworth was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.78% 1,907
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.65% 13
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.61% 32
Hispanic Origin 1.41% 28

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

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.78% 97.39% -1.67%
Black (S)% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.65% 0.41% 45.28%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 1.61% 0.77% 70.59%
Hispanic 1.41% 1.02% 32.10%

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

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

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"Holdsworth last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/holdsworth-surname-popularity/.

"Holdsworth last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/holdsworth-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 December, 2024

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

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