Explore the Family Name Kerney

The meaning of Kerney

Irish: variant of Kearney.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Kerney had a burgeoning popularity towards the beginning of the new millennium. In 2000, Kerney ranked 19,890 in the United States, but by 2010, its rank had improved to 17,472, marking a significant increase of over 12%. The number of people bearing the Kerney name also grew from 1,250 to 1,613 during this decade, indicating a rise of nearly 29%. This trend resulted in the proportion per 100,000 people increasing from 0.46 to 0.55, demonstrating a growth rate of 19.57%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,890	#17,472	12.16%
Count	1,250	1,613	29.04%
Proportion per 100k	0.46	0.55	19.57%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kerney

Looking at the ethnic identity of those with the surname Kerney, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some notable changes between 2000 and 2010. The percentage identifying as White saw a small increase of 1.56%, moving from 70.32% to 71.42%, while the percentage of those who identified as Black decreased by 13.44%, from 26.64% to 23.06%. During this period, the Hispanic population with this surname experienced a dramatic surge of 168.27%, from 1.04% to 2.79%. The proportion identifying as two or more races remained stable at around 1%, while there were newly recorded populations of Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native. However, these figures were relatively small, at 0.99% and 0.68% respectively, and weren't present in the 2000 Census data.

	2000	2010	Change
White	70.32%	71.42%	1.56%
Black	26.64%	23.06%	-13.44%
Hispanic	1.04%	2.79%	168.27%
Two or More Races	1.04%	1.05%	0.96%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.99%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.68%	0%