Explore the Family Name Pettijohn

The meaning of Pettijohn

Anglicized or, in some cases, an Americanized form of French Petitjean. This name has apparently died out in Britain. Compare Pettyjohn.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Pettijohn has seen slight changes in its popularity between 2000 and 2010. The rank of this surname dropped by 2.28% from 19953 in 2000 to 20408 in 2010, indicating a decrease in its commonness compared to other surnames. However, the count, or the total number of people bearing the Pettijohn surname, increased by 4.58%, from 1245 in 2000 to 1302 in 2010. Despite the increase in count, there was a slight decrease in the proportion per 100k, from 0.46 in 2000 to 0.44 in 2010, representing a 4.35% drop.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,953	#20,408	-2.28%
Count	1,245	1,302	4.58%
Proportion per 100k	0.46	0.44	-4.35%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Pettijohn

When it comes to the ethnic identity associated with the surname Pettijohn, changes were observed between 2000 and 2010 as per the Decennial U.S. Census data. The percentage of individuals identifying as White decreased slightly from 88.03% to 86.94%. Likewise, there was a decrease for those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those identifying with two or more races. There was no change in the percentage of individuals identifying as Black. However, noticeable increases were seen in the Hispanic and American Indian and Alaskan Native categories, with a rise from 1.45% to 2.76% and 0.80% to 1.15%, respectively.

	2000	2010	Change
White	88.03%	86.94%	-1.24%
Black	7.07%	7.07%	0%
Hispanic	1.45%	2.76%	90.34%
Two or More Races	2.09%	1.69%	-19.14%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.8%	1.15%	43.75%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.56%	0.38%	-32.14%