Explore the Family Name Holycross

The meaning of Holycross

1. Possibly an Americanized form (translation into English) of Italian Santa Croce, Spanish Santa Cruz or some other Southern European surname meaning ‘the Holy Cross’. 2. Alternatively, perhaps English: habitational name from any of a few places in England called Holy Cross (in County Durham, Tyne and Wear, Herefordshire). This surname is not found in Britain.

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

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

The surname Holycross, according to data from the Decennial U.S. Census, has seen a slight dip in its ranking in terms of popularity between 2000 and 2010, moving from 25,242nd place to 25,272nd. However, the actual count of people with this last name increased by 6.41% during the same period, from 921 to 980 individuals. The proportion of people named Holycross per 100,000 also decreased slightly, by 2.94%, over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#25,242	#25,272	-0.12%
Count	921	980	6.41%
Proportion per 100k	0.34	0.33	-2.94%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Holycross

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Holycross also evolved between 2000 and 2010, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, almost all (98.15%) individuals with this surname identified as White, but this percentage fell to 95.61% by 2010. During the same period, new ethnic identities emerged among those bearing the Holycross surname with small percentages identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Two or more races, Black, and American Indian and Alaskan Native. The percentage of people with this surname identifying as Hispanic decreased by about a third, from 0.76% to 0.51%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	98.15%	95.61%	-2.59%
Two or More Races	0%	2.04%	0%
Black	0%	0.71%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.61%	0%
Hispanic	0.76%	0.51%	-32.89%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.51%	0%