Carson

At the 2020 census, 54,032 Americans bore the surname Carson — 608th out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 5,532.

By the numbers

People: 54,032
Rank: 608th
How common: 1 in 5,532
Per 100,000: 18.1

Where the name comes from

Could originate from the Gaelic name "Carr" or "Carra", meaning "rock" or "fort, " combined with "son", thus "son of Carr.".

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Carson described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 69.0%
Black, not Hispanic 21.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.6%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Carson

Rachel Carson (1907–1964)American marine biologist and conservationist
Johnny Carson (1925–2005)American talk show host and comedian
Sofia Carson (born 1993)American singer, actress, dancer and songwriter
Ben Carson (born 1951)Neurosurgeon and former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Scott Carson (born 1985)English association football player
Kit Carson (1809–1868)American frontiersman and Union Army general
Anne Carson (born 1950)Canadian poet, essayist, and academic
Jack Carson (1910–1963)Canadian-born American-based film actor

People named Carson with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Carson

Also a first name

Carson has been given to 140,887 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2018. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.