Explore the Family Name Bough

The meaning of Bough

1. English: from a Norman form of Old French boeuf ‘bull, ox’, hence a nickname for a powerfully built man or, in some cases, a metonymic occupational name for a herdsman. It is pronounced as if spelled Boff. 2. English and Irish: variant of Bow. It is pronounced as if spelled Bow.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Bough has slightly declined over a decade. In 2000, Bough was ranked 28,730th in terms of popularity and this rank dropped to 30,767th in 2010, which is a change of -7.09%. The count of people with the surname Bough also decreased from 780 in 2000 to 757 in 2010, seeing a decrease of -2.95%. The proportion per 100k people went down by -10.34%, from 0.29 to 0.26.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#28,730	#30,767	-7.09%
Count	780	757	-2.95%
Proportion per 100k	0.29	0.26	-10.34%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Bough

When it comes to ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows some changes between 2000 and 2010 for the surname Bough. The percentage of individuals identified as Asian/Pacific Islander and White decreased by -1.95% and -3.60% respectively. However, there were increases seen in other categories. Those identifying as having two or more ethnicities saw an increase of 41.95%, Hispanic increased by 116.41%, Black by 13.01%, and American Indian and Alaskan Native by 14.78%. Please note that the percentages represented here do not add up to 100% because of the option to select more than one ethnicity.

	2000	2010	Change
White	87.56%	84.41%	-3.6%
Black	5.38%	6.08%	13.01%
Two or More Races	2.05%	2.91%	41.95%
Hispanic	1.28%	2.77%	116.41%
Asian/Pacific Islander	2.56%	2.51%	-1.95%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.15%	1.32%	14.78%