Explore the Family Name Swanigan

The meaning of Swanigan

Irish: perhaps an Anglicized form of a Gaelic Ó Suibhneacháin, which is not recorded in Ireland, but ispossibly a pet form of Ó Suibhne (see Sweeney).

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the Swanigan surname has seen a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Swanigan ranked 18,329 in popularity among all surnames, but this rank fell to 18,457 in 2010, marking a decrease of 0.7%. However, the actual count of individuals with the Swanigan surname increased by 7.46% over the same period, growing from 1,395 to 1,499. The proportion of people bearing the Swanigan surname per 100,000 also saw a minor decrease of -1.92%, going from 0.52 to 0.51.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#18,329	#18,457	-0.7%
Count	1,395	1,499	7.46%
Proportion per 100k	0.52	0.51	-1.92%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Swanigan

When it comes to the ethnic identity associated with the Swanigan surname, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows noticeable shifts between 2000 and 2010. The majority of those with the Swanigan surname identified as Black, with a slight increase from 74.84% in 2000 to 75.12% in 2010. The percentage of Swanigans identifying as White decreased by 6.30%, falling from 20.65% to 19.35%. Those identifying as Hispanic saw an increase from 1% to 1.4%, a growth of 40%. The percentage of Swanigans identifying with two or more races also rose by 35.85%, from 2.65% to 3.6%. The data for Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native were either zero or suppressed for privacy.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	74.84%	75.12%	0.37%
White	20.65%	19.35%	-6.3%
Two or More Races	2.65%	3.6%	35.85%
Hispanic	1%	1.4%	40%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.86%	0%	0%