Explore the Family Name Sweed

The meaning of Sweed

1. Americanized form of Swedish Sveed, itself a variant of Sved: habitational name from a farm name found in Dalarna (Sweden) and in Ostrobothnia (Finland), meaning ‘burnt land’. 2. Arabic (Egypt and the Levant): variant of Suwaid, the standard diminutive from the Arabic root s-w-d ‘black’.

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

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

The surname Sweed saw a decrease in its popularity based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, the surname ranked at 54,880 and it dropped to 62,531 in 2010, which represents a decrease of approximately 13.94%. The count of individuals bearing this surname also decreased from 351 in 2000 to 320 in 2010, marking an 8.83% decline. Similarly, the proportion per 100,000 people of the surname Sweed fell from 0.13 to 0.11 over the same period, a drop of 15.38%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#54,880	#62,531	-13.94%
Count	351	320	-8.83%
Proportion per 100k	0.13	0.11	-15.38%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Sweed

Regarding the ethnic identity associated with the surname Sweed, there have been some shifts between 2000 and 2010 according to the Decennial U.S. Census. The percentage of those identifying as White increased from 37.32% to 40.63%, a gain of 8.87%. However, Black identifiers decreased slightly from 58.12% to 55.94%, a 3.75% reduction. The Hispanic and American Indian and Alaskan Native categories both experienced a drop to zero by 2010 from their 2000 figures. Notably, the category 'Two or more races' appeared in 2010 with 1.88%, suggesting a rise in multi-ethnic identification among those carrying the Sweed surname. There was no change for Asian/Pacific Islander, which remained at zero.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	58.12%	55.94%	-3.75%
White	37.32%	40.63%	8.87%
Two or More Races	0%	1.88%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	2.28%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.71%	0%	0%