Explore the Family Name Bottom

The meaning of Bottom

1. English (northern): topographic name for someone who lived in a dell, hollow, or valley floor, from Middle English bot(h)me, Old English botm ‘valley bottom’. Compare Botham. 2. Americanized form (mistranslation into English) of French Lafond, in which Old French la fond ‘the fountain’ is confused with modern French le fond ‘the bottom’.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Bottom in the United States?

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname 'Bottom' has slightly decreased over a decade. In 2000, 'Bottom' ranked 16,349 in popularity and had 1,622 bearers in the U.S., representing 0.6 per 100k of the population. By 2010, its rank slipped to 17,526 with a count of 1,607, reducing the proportion per 100k to 0.54. This demonstrates a decline of 7.2% in the ranking and a modest drop of 0.92% in overall count.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#16,349	#17,526	-7.2%
Count	1,622	1,607	-0.92%
Proportion per 100k	0.6	0.54	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Bottom

In terms of ethnicity, the census data suggests some shifts between 2000 and 2010. The majority of individuals with the surname 'Bottom' identified as White, but this dropped from 89.95% in 2000 to 87.55% in 2010. Meanwhile, those who identified as Black increased from 5.73% to 6.66%. The percentage of people identifying as Hispanic also saw a significant rise from 1.79% to 2.86%. Notably, the categories "Asian/Pacific Islander" and "American Indian and Alaskan Native" emerged in 2010, accounting for 0.56% and 0.44% respectively. The group denoting two or more races experienced a slight increase, going from 1.91% to 1.93%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	89.95%	87.55%	-2.67%
Black	5.73%	6.66%	16.23%
Hispanic	1.79%	2.86%	59.78%
Two or More Races	1.91%	1.93%	1.05%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.56%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.44%	0%