Explore the Family Name Penington

The meaning of Penington

English (Lancashire): variant of Pennington. This form of the surname is rare in Britain and Ireland. History: Edward Penington, born in 1667 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, was appointed surveyor-general of the province of PA in 1698 and accompanied William Penn to Philadelphia.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Penington has seen a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 59,453, but by 2010 it had slipped to 62,189, a change of -4.6%. Despite this drop in rank, the number of people with this surname actually increased from 318 in 2000 to 322 in 2010, an uptick of 1.26%. However, as a proportion per 100,000 people, its prevalence decreased by 8.33%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#59,453	#62,189	-4.6%
Count	318	322	1.26%
Proportion per 100k	0.12	0.11	-8.33%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Penington

Looking at the ethnic identity associated with the surname Penington based on the Decennial U.S. Census, we see some changes between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of individuals identifying as White decreased from 93.40% to 90.99%, a change of -2.58%. The percentage of people identifying as Hispanic saw a significant increase, moving from 1.89% to 3.42%, an increase of 80.95%. Meanwhile, the Black population bearing the Penington name decreased from 4.72% to 4.04%, a decrease of -14.41%. There were no recorded individuals of Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnicity within this surname group during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	93.4%	90.99%	-2.58%
Black	4.72%	4.04%	-14.41%
Hispanic	1.89%	3.42%	80.95%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%