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

Winchester, 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 Winchester surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Winchester in America

Winchester is the 3413th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Winchester surname appeared 10,480 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Winchester.

We can also compare 2010 data for Winchester 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 Winchester

The surname Winchester originated in England, with roots dating back to the 11th century. It is a locational name derived from the city of Winchester, which was an important urban center during the Middle Ages. The name Winchester comes from the Old English words "Wince" and "ceaster," meaning "winding" and "fort" or "town," respectively.

The city of Winchester was established by the Romans and served as the capital of the ancient kingdom of Wessex. It was a significant religious and administrative center, with the construction of the renowned Winchester Cathedral in the 11th century. The Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England, contains numerous references to individuals with the surname Winchester.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Winchester can be found in the Pipe Rolls of Hampshire from the late 12th century, where a person named Walter de Wincestre is mentioned. The variant spelling "Wynchestre" also appeared in medieval records from the 13th century.

Notable individuals with the surname Winchester throughout history include:

1. Thomas Winchester (c. 1610-1690), an early settler in Massachusetts Bay Colony and one of the founders of Muddy River (now Brookline), Massachusetts.
2. Elhanan Winchester (1751-1797), an influential Baptist minister and Christian universalist author from Massachusetts.
3. Oliver Fisher Winchester (1810-1880), the American businessman and founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, known for the renowned Winchester rifles.
4. James Winchester (1795-1859), a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as the fourth Lieutenant Governor of British Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) from 1848 to 1854.
5. Sir Benjamin Winchester (1596-1657), an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament for Middlesex during the reign of King Charles I.

While the surname Winchester originated from the city in Hampshire, England, it has since spread to various parts of the world due to migration and settlement patterns over the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Winchester

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

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

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

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