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

Parnell, 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 Parnell surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Parnell in America

Parnell is the 2475th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Parnell surname appeared 14,560 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 Parnell.

We can also compare 2010 data for Parnell 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 Parnell

The surname Parnell has its origins in the English counties of Devon and Somerset, dating back to the 12th century. It is derived from the Old English words "pær" meaning pear tree and "nell" meaning hill or mound, indicating that the name originally referred to someone who lived near a pear tree on a hill.

One of the earliest known references to the name Parnell can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which recorded a landowner named Ernaldus de Parnella in Somerset. This entry suggests that the name was already established in the region by the late 11th century.

In the 13th century, the name appeared in various forms such as Pernell, Parnill, and Pernill, reflecting the variations in spelling and pronunciation common during that time. The earliest recorded spelling of the name as Parnell dates back to 1273 in the Hundred Rolls of Norfolk.

Notable individuals with the surname Parnell include Thomas Parnell (1679-1718), an English poet and friend of Jonathan Swift, and Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), a prominent Irish nationalist politician who campaigned for Irish Home Rule in the late 19th century.

Other historical figures with this surname include Henry Brooke Parnell (1776-1842), an Irish politician and landowner, and Charles Stewart Parnell's mother, Delia Tudor Parnell (1816-1898), who was a co-founder of the Ladies' Land League.

In the United States, one of the earliest known bearers of the Parnell surname was Thomas Parnell, who arrived in Virginia in 1635 and later settled in Maryland.

Throughout its history, the name Parnell has also been associated with various place names, such as Parnell Square in Dublin, Ireland, named after Charles Stewart Parnell, and Parnell, Missouri, a small town likely named after an early settler with the same surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Parnell

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

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

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

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