Explore the Family Name Top

The meaning of Top

1. Dutch and German: from Middle Dutch top, Middle Low German topp ‘crown of the head, plait, lock of hair’, hence a nickname referring to a feature of someone’s head, perhaps baldness or a particular hairstyle. 2. Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): metonymic occupational name for a potter, from Yiddish top ‘pot’. 3. English: variant of Topp.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Top has seen a significant increase in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 45,573rd, but by 2010 it had risen to the 38,332nd rank, marking an impressive 15.89% change. The total count of individuals with this surname also grew by nearly 31%, going from 442 in 2000 to 578 in 2010. As a result, the proportion of individuals with the surname Top per 100,000 people also increased by 25%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#45,573	#38,332	15.89%
Count	442	578	30.77%
Proportion per 100k	0.16	0.2	25%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Top

The Decennial U.S. Census data also provides a detailed look at the changing ethnic identity associated with the surname Top. In 2000, 72.4% identified as White, which decreased by almost 14% to 62.28% in 2010. There was a small increase in those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, from 15.84% in 2000 to 16.61% in 2010. Those identifying as Black also saw a rise, from 3.62% in 2000 to 4.67% in 2010. Interestingly, there was a noticeable emergence of Hispanic identification, which had no representation in 2000 but accounted for 13.32% in 2010. The group identifying as two or more races in 2000 was not represented in the 2010 data (perhaps due to suppression for privacy).

	2000	2010	Change
White	72.4%	62.28%	-13.98%
Asian/Pacific Islander	15.84%	16.61%	4.86%
Hispanic	0%	13.32%	0%
Black	3.62%	4.67%	29.01%
Two or More Races	4.98%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%