Explore the Family Name Scale

The meaning of Scale

English: from northern Middle English scale ‘herdsman’s hut, shed, shieling’ (Old Norse skáli). The surname may have denoted a herdsman who lived and worked on a summer pasture or someone from any of several mostly minor places so named in Lancashire and Yorkshire. The name often varies between singular and plural forms; see Scales.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname 'Scale' has seen a decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 95,567 in terms of prevalence and dropped to a rank of 119,508 ten years later, indicating a drop in popularity by 25.05%. Numerically, the count of individuals with this surname also reduced from 177 in 2000 to 145 in 2010, representing a decline of 18.08%. Consequently, the proportion per 100,000 of the population with this surname decreased by 28.57% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#95,567	#119,508	-25.05%
Count	177	145	-18.08%
Proportion per 100k	0.07	0.05	-28.57%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Scale

Turning to the ethnicity associated with the surname 'Scale', the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that there were no reported instances of the surname among the Asian/Pacific Islander, multi-racial, Hispanic, or American Indian and Alaskan Native populations in either 2000 or 2010. Among White individuals, the percentage carrying the 'Scale' surname decreased from 54.24% in 2000 to 44.83% in 2010, a drop of 17.35%. However, there was a notable increase among the Black community, with the percentage rising from 42.94% to 51.72% over the decade, an upturn of 20.45%.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	42.94%	51.72%	20.45%
White	54.24%	44.83%	-17.35%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%