Explore the Family Name Mossop

The meaning of Mossop

English (Cumbria): variant of Moscrop, a nickname from the Middle English plant-name mos-crop ‘moss-crop (i.e. cotton-grass or silverweed)’, perhaps used of someone with a distinctive tufty or cottony head of hair.

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

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

The Mossop surname, based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, has shown a slight increase in its overall popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 81,700 and by 2010, the rank had risen to 79,338, indicating a 2.89% shift upwards. The count of individuals carrying this surname also increased from 215 in 2000 to 240 in 2010, a growth of 11.63%. However, the proportion of people named Mossop per 100,000 remained constant at 0.08 over the decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#81,700	#79,338	2.89%
Count	215	240	11.63%
Proportion per 100k	0.08	0.08	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Mossop

In terms of ethnic identity, analysis of the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals interesting trends for the Mossop surname. While there were no recorded instances of this surname among Asian/Pacific Islanders or American Indian and Alaskan Natives in either year, the number of people with mixed races (two or more) bearing this name appeared for the first time in 2010. Individuals identifying as white hold the majority of the Mossop surname, increasing from 79.53% in 2000 to 81.25% in 2010. There was a small decline in the percentage of Black individuals with the surname, from 15.81% in 2000 down to 14.58% in 2010. Notably, those identifying as Hispanic disappeared entirely from the Mossop surname demographic by 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	79.53%	81.25%	2.16%
Black	15.81%	14.58%	-7.78%
Two or More Races	0%	2.92%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	2.33%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%