Explore the Family Name Kett

The meaning of Kett

1. German: topographic name for someone living near a water channel or water source, from the Bavarian dialect word Kett ‘water channel, spring’. 2. English (Norfolk): variant of Kite. 3. Irish (Munster): from Ó Ceit ‘descendant of Ceat’, a personal name of unexplained etymology.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname "Kett" saw a decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 41,924th most common surname in the U.S., but by 2010, it had dropped to the 45,253rd position, marking a 7.94% change. The count of individuals holding this surname also decreased during this period from 488 to 473, reflecting a decrease of approximately 3.07%. Consequently, the proportion of individuals with the surname "Kett" per 100,000 people declined by 11.11%, from 0.18 to 0.16.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#41,924	#45,253	-7.94%
Count	488	473	-3.07%
Proportion per 100k	0.18	0.16	-11.11%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kett

Regarding ethnic identity, data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that the majority of individuals with the "Kett" surname identified as White in both 2000 and 2010, with a slight increase from 94.88% to 95.56% over the decade. There were no reported individuals with this surname identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, or as having two or more races, or as American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year. The representation of those identifying as Hispanic saw a modest decrease from 2.46% in 2000 to 2.33% in 2010. There were people who identified as Black in 2000, but this number fell to zero by the year 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.88%	95.56%	0.72%
Hispanic	2.46%	2.33%	-5.28%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	1.64%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%