Johnston

126,068 people in the United States were counted with the surname Johnston in the 2020 census, making it the 237th most common in the country. That is about one person in 2,371.

By the numbers

People: 126,068
Rank: 237th
How common: 1 in 2,371
Per 100,000: 42.2

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 88.3%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.9%
Hispanic or Latino 3.7%
Black, not Hispanic 2.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Johnston

David Johnston (born 1941)Governor General of Canada from 2010 to 2017
Joseph E. Johnston (1807–1891)Confederate general
Alistair Johnston (born 1998)Canadian soccer player
Joe Johnston (born 1950)American film director and effects artist
Kristen Johnston (born 1967)American actress
Daniel Johnston (1961–2019)American musician
Albert Sidney Johnston (1803–1862)Confederate States Army officer
Harry Johnston (1858–1927)British explorer, botanist, linguist and colonial administrator

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

Surnames like Johnston

Also a first name

Johnston has been given to 512 American babies as a first name since 1914, peaking in 2007. 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.