Explore the Family Name Spero

The meaning of Spero

1. American shortened and altered form of Greek Spiros or of any of various derivatives of this personal name. 2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Spiro.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Spero has experienced a decline from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, Spero was ranked as the 12,705th most common surname in the United States and it had fallen to the 14,617th position by 2010, marking a decrease of 15.05%. Similarly, the count of individuals with this surname also decreased from 2,232 in 2000 to 2,036 in 2010, a drop of 8.78%. The proportion of people named Spero per 100,000 population also fell by 16.87% over this decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#12,705	#14,617	-15.05%
Count	2,232	2,036	-8.78%
Proportion per 100k	0.83	0.69	-16.87%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Spero

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some shifts among those bearing the surname Spero between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of people identifying as White increased slightly from 88.62% to 91.11%. Conversely, those identifying as Hispanic decreased notably from 8.47% to 5.94%. The portion of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander also saw a decrease, going from 1.39% in 2000 to 0.98% in 2010. Data for 'Two or more races' was suppressed in 2010 for privacy reasons; however, there was an introduction of individuals identifying as Black, at 0.98%, that had not been present in the 2000 data. There were no recorded instances of individuals identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	88.62%	91.11%	2.81%
Hispanic	8.47%	5.94%	-29.87%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.39%	0.98%	-29.5%
Black	0%	0.98%	0%
Two or More Races	1.08%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%