Explore the Family Name O’rear

The meaning of O’rear

Probably Irish: unexplained. This surname is not found in Ireland.

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

How common is the last name O’rear in the United States?

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname O’Rear showed a slight dip between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 12,789th most popular surname, but by 2010, it had fallen to the 13,815th spot, showing an 8.02% decrease in rank. The number of individuals with this surname also saw a marginal decline from 2,211 in 2000 to 2,188 in 2010, marking a -1.04% change. Proportionally, for every 100,000 people in the country, there were 0.82 individuals named O’Rear in 2000 and 0.74 in 2010 – a drop of 9.76%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#12,789	#13,815	-8.02%
Count	2,211	2,188	-1.04%
Proportion per 100k	0.82	0.74	-9.76%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name O’rear

The ethnicity distribution of those with the O’Rear surname also shifted during the same decade, as reported by the Decennial U.S. Census. The majority of those who identified as White decreased slightly from 93.03% in 2000 to 90.68% in 2010. There was a significant increase in those identifying their ethnicity as Hispanic, rising from 0.81% to 2.01%, a change of 148.15%. Those identifying as Black increased from 4.12% to 4.89%, which is a 18.69% increase. The proportion of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander also saw a substantial rise from 0.32% to 0.59%, an 84.37% increase. Those identifying with two or more races increased marginally from 1.45% to 1.55%, up by 6.90%. The percentage of American Indian and Alaskan Native remained stable at 0.27%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	93.03%	90.68%	-2.53%
Black	4.12%	4.89%	18.69%
Hispanic	0.81%	2.01%	148.15%
Two or More Races	1.45%	1.55%	6.9%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.32%	0.59%	84.37%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.27%	0.27%	0%