Explore the Family Name Goodspeed

The meaning of Goodspeed

English (London): from the Middle English expression god spede ‘God speed (you)’; a wish for success for one setting out on an enterprise, presumably applied as a nickname for someone who habitually used this expression.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Goodspeed saw a minor decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked at 13,300, but dropped to 13,815 by 2010 — that's a change of -3.87%. However, the total count of people with this last name increased from 2,103 to 2,188 during the same period, showing a growth of 4.04%. The proportion per 100,000 people also fell slightly from 0.78 to 0.74, marking a -5.13% change.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#13,300	#13,815	-3.87%
Count	2,103	2,188	4.04%
Proportion per 100k	0.78	0.74	-5.13%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Goodspeed

In terms of ethnicity, again based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the majority of people with the Goodspeed surname identified as White in both 2000 and 2010, although there was a slight decrease from 89.87% to 88.99%. The second most common ethnic identity was Black, despite a 5.42% drop over the decade. Interestingly, those identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native grew substantially from 0.29% to 0.82%, representing an increase of 182.76%. There was also an increase in the proportion of Goodspeeds identifying as Hispanic, rising from 1.09% to 1.78%. Those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander decreased by 20.99%, while those identifying with two or more races increased slightly by 8.65%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	89.87%	88.99%	-0.98%
Black	6.09%	5.76%	-5.42%
Two or More Races	1.85%	2.01%	8.65%
Hispanic	1.09%	1.78%	63.3%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.29%	0.82%	182.76%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.81%	0.64%	-20.99%