Explore the Family Name Churchman

The meaning of Churchman

1. English: from Middle English chirch(e)man ‘clergyman; churchwarden; lay official responsible for church finances’. The earliest examples would have denoted a custodian or keeper of a church (Old English cyriceman), not a clergyman, though the earlier sense had probably been superseded by the time the surname arose. 2. Possibly an Americanized form (translation into English) of German Kirchmann (see Kirchman).

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Churchman saw a slight dip in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Churchman was ranked 18,938th in popularity, sliding to a rank of 19,581 in 2010, marking a 3.4% decrease. However, the number of people with the Churchman surname increased from 1,333 in 2000 to 1,378 in 2010, a 3.38% increase. The proportion of people named Churchman per 100,000 also decreased by 4.08%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#18,938	#19,581	-3.4%
Count	1,333	1,378	3.38%
Proportion per 100k	0.49	0.47	-4.08%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Churchman

In terms of ethnic identity, the same Census data indicates that the majority of individuals with the Churchman surname identified as White, though this proportion dropped from 85.82% in 2000 to 80.91% in 2010. Meanwhile, there was an increase in the percentage of people identifying as Black (10.5% to 13.5%) and Hispanic (1.88% to 2.9%). There was also a significant increase in those identifying as belonging to two or more races, which went up by almost 80%. No change was recorded for the Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native categories.

	2000	2010	Change
White	85.82%	80.91%	-5.72%
Black	10.5%	13.5%	28.57%
Hispanic	1.88%	2.9%	54.26%
Two or More Races	1.13%	2.03%	79.65%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%