Whitaker

Whitaker is the 610th most common surname in the United States, shared by 53,950 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 5,540.

By the numbers

People: 53,950
Rank: 610th
How common: 1 in 5,540
Per 100,000: 18.1

Where the name comes from

From Old English *Hwītæcer.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 68.4%
Black, not Hispanic 23.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.0%
Hispanic or Latino 3.0%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.5%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Whitaker

Forest Whitaker (born 1961)American actor
Pernell Whitaker (1964–2019)American boxer
Denzel Whitaker (born 1990)American actor
Frederick Whitaker (1812–1891)Premier of New Zealand
Matthew Whitaker (born 1969)American lawyer and politician
John Whitaker (born 1955)British equestrian
Johnny Whitaker (born 1959)American actor
Duane Whitaker (born 1959)American actor

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

Surnames like Whitaker

Also a first name

Whitaker has been given to 860 American babies as a first name since 1949, peaking in 2025. 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.