Explore the Family Name Kerry

The meaning of Kerry

1. English: from the rare Middle English personal name Kari (Old Norse Kári). 2. Irish: from Ó Ciardha, ‘descendant of Ciardha’, a personal name meaning ‘the black one’.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname "Kerry" has seen a slight increase in popularity from 2000 to 2010. Ranked 14,664th in 2000, it moved up to 14,579th in 2010, marking a small but noticeable increase of 0.58%. In terms of count, there were 1859 individuals with the Kerry surname recorded in 2000, and this number rose by 9.9% to 2043 by 2010. The proportion of the Kerry surname per 100,000 people remained steady at 0.69 over the two census periods.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,664	#14,579	0.58%
Count	1,859	2,043	9.9%
Proportion per 100k	0.69	0.69	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kerry

The Decennial U.S. Census data also provides insight into the ethnic identity associated with the surname Kerry. Between 2000 and 2010, there were notable changes. Individuals identifying as White increased slightly from 82.30% to 83.50%, while those identifying as Black decreased from 13.02% to 10.62%. The percentage of Kerry's identifying as Hispanic saw an increase from 1.56% to 1.86%. There was also a significant increase in the percentage of individuals identifying with two or more races, which went up from 1.34% to 2.20%. However, for Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native, the percentages went down to zero, indicating a decrease or suppression of data for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	82.3%	83.5%	1.46%
Black	13.02%	10.62%	-18.43%
Two or More Races	1.34%	2.2%	64.18%
Hispanic	1.56%	1.86%	19.23%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.02%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.75%	0%	0%