2000
#113
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 190,760
First available Census row
Per 100,000 70.71
Common Last name
Wallace
A surname of Scottish origin meaning "foreigner" or "Celt," derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, meaning "Welshman."
According to the 2020 US Census Bureau surname tables, roughly 217,104 Americans carry the last name Wallace. That puts it at #128 in the national surname ranking, appearing at a frequency of 63.34 per 100,000 people (about 1 in 1,579 residents).
This page is the full Name Census profile for the Wallace surname. You will find the Census Bureau frequency data, a multi-census history view, an ancestry and ethnicity breakdown based on self-reported demographics, the name's meaning and origin where available, and answers to the most common questions people ask about this surname.
For British records, Name Census UK has a British surname profile for Wallace with 1881 census detail, origin facts and modern UK distribution where available.
Bearers in the US
217K
1 in 1,579
Census rank
#128
2020 decennial data
Per 100,000
63.3
Frequency rate
Recorded bearers
189K
common in the US
Popularity narrative
The Census Bureau recorded 189,325 bearers of the surname Wallace in its 2020 decennial surname file. At a rate of 63.34 per 100,000 residents, it holds the 128th position in the national surname ranking.
Among Census respondents with the surname Wallace, the largest self-reported group is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Two or More Races (4.5%).
Origin
Meaning and origin of Wallace
The surname Wallace is of Scottish origin, derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, which means "foreigner" or "stranger". This name was initially given to someone who came from Wales or had some connection to the Welsh people. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to the 12th century in Scotland.
The Wallace surname is closely associated with Sir William Wallace, the famous Scottish knight and landowner who played a significant role in the Wars of Scottish Independence against the English in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He was born around 1270 in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, and became a prominent figure in the resistance against King Edward I of England's attempts to subjugate Scotland.
One of the earliest known references to the Wallace surname can be found in the Ragman Rolls of 1296, which recorded the names of Scottish landowners and nobles who swore fealty to Edward I. Among them was Richerde Walays, a landowner from Riccarton, Ayrshire.
In the 14th century, the Wallace surname was also associated with the family of Adam Wallang or Wallace, a Scottish landowner who held lands in Renfrewshire and Ayrshire. Some records from this period mention a John Wallace, who served as a witness to several charters granted by King Robert II of Scotland in the late 14th century.
Another notable figure with the Wallace surname was William Wallace, a Scottish mathematician and philosopher who lived from 1768 to 1843. He is best known for his work on the theory of energy and his contributions to the development of the concept of the watt, which is named after his friend James Watt.
In the literary world, the Wallace surname is associated with Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist, explorer, and co-discoverer of the theory of evolution through natural selection alongside Charles Darwin. He was born in 1823 and died in 1913, and his extensive travels and research in Southeast Asia and the Amazon Basin made significant contributions to the field of biogeography and evolutionary biology.
The Wallace surname has also been prominent in the realm of politics. Henry A. Wallace was an American politician and agronomist who served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941 to 1945. He was born in 1888 and died in 1965.
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Wallace
Among Census respondents with the surname Wallace, the largest self-reported group is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Two or More Races (4.5%).
The bar chart below shows how Wallace bearers described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given surname, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown for every Census year so the breakdown stays comparable over time. When the source file also includes raw headcounts, Name Census shows those alongside the percentages in the legend.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A person's surname does not determine their race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the Wallace surname at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 125,889
- Black or African American24.0% · 45,480
- Two or more races4.5% · 8,514
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 6,892
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 1,278
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1,272
Timeline
Historical Census data for Wallace
Wallace appears in 3 published Census surname files: 2000, 2010, 2020. The cards below show how the name's rank and bearer count changed across each release.
2010
#123
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 197,276
+6,516 bearers (+3.4%)
Per 100,000 66.88
Rank movement Down 10 places
2020
#128
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 189,325
-7,951 bearers (-4.0%)
Per 100,000 63.34
Rank movement Down 5 places
| Year | Rank | Count | Per 100K | Count change | Rank change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | #113 | 190,760 | 70.71 | First available Census row | First available Census row |
| 2010 | #123 | 197,276 | 66.88 | +6,516 bearers (+3.4%) | Down 10 places |
| 2020 | #128 | 189,325 | 63.34 | -7,951 bearers (-4.0%) | Down 5 places |
For 2020, the Census Bureau published race and Hispanic-origin columns as counts rather than percentages. Name Census converts those counts back into shares so the ancestry section stays comparable with the older surname files.
Year on year
2010 vs 2020 Census
How has the Wallace surname changed between Census years? The chart shows bearer count side by side, and the table compares rank, count, and frequency.
Census year comparison
20102020
| Metric | 2010 | 2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #123 | #128 | -4.1% |
| Count | 197,276 | 189,325 | -4.0% |
| Per 100K | 66.88 | 63.34 | -5.3% |
Between the 2010 and 2020 Census, the number of Wallace bearers went from 197,276 to 189,325 (-4.0% change). The surname moved down 5 positions in the national ranking, going from #123 to #128.
Notable bearers
Famous people with the surname Wallace
FAQ
Wallace surname: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. have the surname Wallace?
Name Census estimates that about 217,104 living Americans carry the surname Wallace. Using the current population baseline, that works out to roughly 1 in 1,579 residents.
How common is Wallace?
Wallace ranks #128 in the 2020 Census surname tables and is classified on this site as "Common." The Census recorded the name at a frequency of 63.34 per 100,000 residents, which is about 63 people out of every 100,000.
How many people with this surname were counted in the Census?
The raw 2020 Census file counted 189,325 people with the surname Wallace. That is different from the site's living-bearer estimate (217,104), which projects the surname's present-day count by applying the Census frequency rate to the current U.S. population.
What does 63.34 per 100,000 actually mean?
It is the Census Bureau's normalized frequency measure. A rate of 63.34 per 100,000 means that if you picked a random group of 100,000 U.S. residents, you would expect about 63 of them to have the surname Wallace.
Has Wallace become more or less common over time?
Between 2010 and 2020, the surname Wallace went from 197,276 recorded bearers to 189,325. That is a decrease of 7,951 (-4.0%). In the national ranking it fell from #123 to #128.
What does the Census say about the background of Wallace?
Among Census respondents with the surname Wallace, the largest self-reported group is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.0%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). These figures come from the 2020 Census Bureau surname tables, based on how respondents described their own race and ethnicity.
Which group reports this surname most often?
White is the largest self-reported group for the surname Wallace in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (125,889 people in the source table).
What is the full ancestry breakdown?
Wallace appears across multiple self-reported groups in the Census data. The largest shares in the 2020 file are White (66.5%), Black (24.0%), Two or More Races (4.5%). For 2020, the source file also published raw headcounts for each group, which is why this page can show both percentages and counts in the ancestry section.
Is this page using the latest Census data?
Yes. This page is using the latest surname file currently loaded on Name Census, which is 2020. The historical section above also keeps any older Census surname entries we have for Wallace (2000, 2010, 2020).
Does the Census include every surname?
No. The Census Bureau only publishes surnames that appeared at least 100 times in a given decennial Census. That means very rare surnames are excluded entirely, and a surname can appear in one Census release but disappear from a later one if it falls below the reporting threshold.
Why don't the ancestry percentages always add up to exactly 100%?
There are two main reasons: rounding and suppression. The Census Bureau rounds published values, and it may suppress very small cells to protect privacy. For 2020, the Bureau also published raw group counts rather than direct percentages, so Name Census converts those counts back into shares for comparability across census years.
What does Wallace mean?
A surname of Scottish origin meaning "foreigner" or "Celt," derived from the Anglo-Norman French waleis, meaning "Welshman." The fuller origin note on this page goes into more detail.
Where does the surname data come from?
All surname statistics on Name Census are drawn from the US Census Bureau's decennial surname frequency tables. These files list every surname that appeared 100 or more times in the 2020 Census, along with a count, a per-100,000 rate, and a self-reported demographic breakdown. You can read the full explanation on our methodology page.
How does Name Census estimate living bearers?
For surnames, Name Census does not age cohorts the way it does for first names. Instead, it takes the Census Bureau's published frequency for Wallace (63.34 per 100,000) and applies that rate to the current U.S. resident population to estimate how many living Americans have the surname today.
How many people have the last name Wallace?
Find out how many people are called Wallace on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.