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

Kittrell, 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 Kittrell surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kittrell in America

Kittrell is the 7987th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kittrell surname appeared 4,140 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 Kittrell.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kittrell 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 Kittrell

The surname Kittrell is of Anglo-Saxon origin and can be traced back to the ancient English county of Devon, where it was derived from a place name. The earliest recorded spelling of the name was Kitterel, found in the Pipe Rolls of Devon in 1195. It is believed to have originated from the Old English words "cyte" meaning cottage and "rel" meaning ridge, thus referring to someone who lived by a cottage on a ridge.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Robert Kitterel, who was mentioned in the Assize Rolls of Staffordshire in 1292. The surname also appears in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire from 1273, where it is recorded as Kyterel.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name underwent various spelling variations, including Kittrell, Kittrall, Kitterell, and Kytterell. It is recorded that a John Kitterell was a landowner in the parish of Sampford Brett, Somerset, in 1586.

In the early colonial period of North America, the name Kittrell appeared in Virginia, with records showing a Robert Kittrell who was granted land in New Kent County in 1679. Another early bearer of the name was James Kittrell, who was born in Virginia in 1692 and later settled in Granville County, North Carolina.

Notable individuals with the surname Kittrell include Sir John Kittrell (1564-1635), an English landowner and Member of Parliament for Tavistock in 1614; Thomas Kittrell (1772-1834), an American soldier who served in the War of 1812; and William Kittrell (1816-1888), a Confederate soldier and politician from Tennessee.

Other historical figures bearing the name Kittrell include Robert Kittrell (1798-1879), an American farmer and politician from Mississippi; and John Kittrell (1825-1903), a Baptist minister and educator who founded Kittrell College in North Carolina in 1886.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kittrell

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Kittrell, 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!