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

Merchant, 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 Merchant surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Merchant in America

Merchant is the 2455th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Merchant surname appeared 14,692 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 5 people would have the surname Merchant.

We can also compare 2010 data for Merchant 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 Merchant

The surname Merchant is an English occupational name derived from the Old French word "marchaunt", meaning "a trader" or "merchant". It emerged in medieval times during the 12th and 13th centuries when trade across Europe started to flourish.

The name was initially concentrated in areas associated with commerce and trade routes, such as London, Bristol, and other port cities in England. It is believed to have first appeared in written records around the late 12th century as the spelling "Marchaunt".

One of the earliest recorded examples of the name dates back to 1273 in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire, which lists a Robert le Marchaunt. In the same century, the name also appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1296, referring to a Thomas le Marchant.

The Merchant surname can be traced back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a place name "Marchant" in Somerset. This suggests that some early bearers of the name may have derived their surname from the place they inhabited.

Over time, the spelling evolved to its modern form of Merchant, as evident in the records of John Merchant, a merchant from London mentioned in the Close Rolls of 1435. Other notable individuals with this surname include:

1. Myles Merchant (c. 1553-1628), an English merchant and Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in the early 17th century.
2. Sir Samuel Rowlands Merchant (1619-1660), an English merchant and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1660.
3. Thomas Merchant (c. 1600-1672), an English merchant and pioneer settler in New England, who co-founded the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut.
4. John Merchant (1785-1859), a British merchant and Member of Parliament for Beverley from 1832 to 1835.
5. Edward Merchant (1823-1891), an English-born merchant and politician in New Zealand, who served as Mayor of Auckland from 1887 to 1888.

The Merchant surname has a rich history deeply rooted in the medieval trade and commerce of England, reflecting the importance of merchants in shaping the economic and social fabric of the country over centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Merchant

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

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

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

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