Jackson Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin

In this article we'll look at the origin and meaning of the surname Jackson and how popular it is in the United States. We'll also look at the race and ethnic origin of people in the United States who are named Jackson.

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

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What is the Origin and Meaning of the Last Name Jackson?

The surname Jackson is a patronymic name that means “son of Jack.” As a given name Jack is a nickname derivative of the common name John. The origin of the name John is found in the Hebrew language where it derives from the word Yohanan which means “graced by God.”

Thanks, in the most part, to one of the disciples of Jesus, John, this common name became popular throughout early Christian Europe. It is unclear exactly how the name Jack came to derive from John but it has been theorized that slight variations of the name throughout the Medieval period may have played a part.

It is possible that people when referring to the family or kin of someone called John may have used the term Johnkin. This may have morphed to Jankin, then to Jackin and finally may have ended up as Jack.

The Jackson name seems to have originated in England and Scotland with some of the earliest mentions being in the 13^th century. Listed in the Cambridgeshire Hundredorum rolls in 1273 were at least two families bearing the name Jackson. Tax records from Yorkshire in 1379 record Robert and Henricus Filius (Jake).

Sir Anthony Jackson (1599-1666) is a notable bearer of the surname. A cavalier during the English civil war Sir Anthony was also a lawyer by profession. Although the royalists did not win this war his service was recognized when the exiled King Charles II was reinstated to the British throne. Charles bestowed upon Sir John a knighthood.

Where Does Jackson Rank in the Most Common U.S. Names?

According to the data, Jackson is ranked #19 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

The Jackson surname appeared 708,099 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 240.05 would have the surname Jackson.

We can also compare 2010 data for Jackson 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.

Race and Ethnic Origin of People with the Last Name Jackson

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

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: "White only", "Black only", "American Indian and Alaskan Native only", "Asian and Pacific Islander only", "Two or More Races", and "Hispanic".

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

• 39.89%, or 282,461 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic White Only".
• 53.04%, or 375,576 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Black Only".
• 0.39%, or 2,762 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only".
• 1.06%, or 7,506 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native".
• 3.12%, or 22,093 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races".
• 2.50%, or 17,702 total occurrences, were "Hispanic Origin".

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

Data Source(s)

All of the data on this page is sourced from the Decennial Census survey, from the United States Census Bureau.

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