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

Litten, 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 Litten surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Litten in America

Litten is the 17131st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Litten surname appeared 1,655 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 Litten.

We can also compare 2010 data for Litten 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 Litten

The surname LITTEN originated in England during the late medieval period. It is derived from the Old English word "liten", which means small or little. This name likely referred to a person of small stature or was used as a descriptive nickname for someone who was younger or shorter than others in their community.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the LITTEN surname can be found in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, where a Richard Liten is listed as residing in Oxfordshire. The Hundred Rolls were a census-like record taken in England during the reign of King Edward I.

By the 14th century, the LITTEN surname had spread to various regions of England, with variations in spelling such as Litton, Lytton, and Littun appearing in historical documents. In the Subsidy Rolls of 1327, a John Lytten is recorded in Gloucestershire, while a Robert Lytton is listed in Yorkshire.

The LITTEN name has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history. One of the earliest was Sir Robert Litton (1480-1556), a prominent English judge and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Another distinguished bearer of the LITTEN surname was Sir Edward Litton (1587-1645), an English politician and courtier who served as a Member of Parliament and as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Charles I.

In the literary world, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was a renowned English novelist, playwright, and politician, best known for his historical novel "The Last Days of Pompeii" and for coining the famous opening line "It was a dark and stormy night."

The LITTEN surname has also been associated with several notable figures in the field of science and technology. Albert Litton (1891-1983) was an American engineer and inventor who designed and developed the first successful mass-produced automobile coil springs.

Another notable bearer of the LITTEN name was Judith Litton (1926-2013), a British physicist and computer scientist who made significant contributions to the development of computer programming languages and software engineering.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Litten

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

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

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

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