Explore the Family Name Buttolph

The meaning of Buttolph

English (Norfolk): from the medieval personal name Botolph or Botolf (Old English bōt ‘advantage’ + wulf ‘wolf’). Saint Botolph (died 680) is said to have introduced the Benedictine rule into England and brought Christianity to East Anglia. Boston in Lincolnshire was named in Old English as Botulves stan ‘Saint Botolph’s stone’.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Buttolph has seen a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 66,878th in frequency and increased to 70,403rd by 2010, marking a -5.27 change in rank. Despite this, the overall count of people with the Buttolph surname increased slightly from 276 in 2000 to 278 in 2010, a positive change of 0.72. However, when considering the proportion per 100k individuals, there is a decrease of 10% over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#66,878	#70,403	-5.27%
Count	276	278	0.72%
Proportion per 100k	0.1	0.09	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Buttolph

Turning to the ethnic identity associated with the Buttolph surname, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that most individuals identifying as Buttolph were of White ethnicity, though this decreased from 94.57% in 2000 to 91.73% in 2010. A new addition to the ethnicity distribution in 2010 was the Hispanic population, which made up 4.32% of those with the surname Buttolph. There was also a small percentage, 1.80%, identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native. The data did not show any individuals with the Buttolph surname identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or Black, and no individuals reported being of two or more races during both census periods.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.57%	91.73%	-3%
Hispanic	0%	4.32%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	1.8%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%