Explore the Family Name Upham

The meaning of Upham

English (Devon and Somerset): habitational name from Upham Farm in Farringdon (Devon), Upham in Aldbourne (Wiltshire), or Upham (Hampshire), from Old English upp ‘upper’ + hām ‘village, homestead’ or hamm ‘water meadow’.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Upham has seen slight fluctuations over the past decade. The rank of the surname dropped from 14,966 in 2000 to 16,060 in 2010, marking a decline of approximately 7.31%. In terms of actual count, the number of individuals with the Upham surname decreased marginally by 0.44%, from 1,812 in 2000 to 1,804 in 2010. Consequently, the proportion of people with this surname per 100,000 also fell by roughly 8.96% between the two decades.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,966	#16,060	-7.31%
Count	1,812	1,804	-0.44%
Proportion per 100k	0.67	0.61	-8.96%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Upham

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the ethnic identity distribution associated with the surname Upham has also undergone some changes from 2000 to 2010. The percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaskan Native experienced a decline of 53.89% and 6.91% respectively. Conversely, the proportion of Upham individuals identifying as having two or more races increased by 55.37%. Notably, there were no Upham respondents who identified as Hispanic or Black in 2000, but in 2010 these categories accounted for 1.66% and 0.39% respectively. The percentage of white individuals with the surname Upham remained relatively stable, decreasing slightly by 0.40%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	92.72%	92.35%	-0.4%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	3.04%	2.83%	-6.91%
Two or More Races	1.21%	1.88%	55.37%
Hispanic	0%	1.66%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.93%	0.89%	-53.89%
Black	0%	0.39%	0%