Green
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Green is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 42nd most common surname. Recorded meaning: (i) medieval nickname for someone who wore green clothing, played the Green Man, or lived by a village green; (ii) anglicization of German Griin or Yiddish Grin; (iii) translation of Irish Gaelic surn.
- JMJamaica≈1 in 454(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 548
- AUAustralia≈1 in 696
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #208 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 635 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 454 (inferred from the name graph)
430,182 people, 2010
of 19M surnames
Highest-authority source
Jamaica, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
(i) medieval nickname for someone who wore green clothing, played the Green Man, or lived by a village green; (ii) anglicization of German Griin or Yiddish Grin; (iii) translation of Irish Gaelic surnames based on glas or uaithne.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Green counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #42 | 430,182 | 1 in 773 | 430K | Green | 635 |
| GB United Kingdom | #26 | ≈120,000 est. | ≈1 in 548 | — | Green | 402 |
| EG Egypt | #823 | ≈45,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | — | Green | 40 |
| CA Canada | #42 | ≈40,000 est. | ≈1 in 949 | — | Green | 301 |
| IT Italy | #52 | ≈37,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.7K | listed | Green | 84 |
| AU Australia | #36 | ≈37,000 est. | ≈1 in 696 | — | Green | 276 |
| NZ New Zealand | #41 | ≈7,000 est. | ≈1 in 703 | — | Green | 160 |
| JM Jamaica | #11 | ≈6,200 est. | ≈1 in 454 | — | Green | 36 |
| IS Iceland | #96 | ≈460 est. | ≈1 in 765 | listed | Green | 26 |
430,182 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; the xinhua-italian-manual register. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Green is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, from OE grēne ‘green’, usually from residence near the village green; first attested Geoffrey de Grene 1188 P (K)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In English, Americanized form of German Griin or Greenamyer Yiddish Grin, Ashkenazic ornamental names meaning ‘green’ or a short form of any of the numerous compounds with this element.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, translation of various Gaelic surnames derived from glas ‘gray’, ‘green’, ‘blue’. See also Fahey.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, short form of a habitational name from a place name with Gren- as the first element (for example Greune, Greubole).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, Of a green hue; with a hue which is of grass or leaves.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Thomas Hill Greenb. 1836GBBritish philosopher (1836-1882)
- Adolph Greenb. 1914USAmerican lyricist and playwright (1914-2002)
- Doris Robertsb. 1925USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (1925–2016)
- Peter Greenb. 1946GBBritish blues rock guitarist (1946–2020)
- Peter Greeneb. 1959USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (1959–2025)
- Tom Greenb. 1971CACanadian actor and comedian
- Brian Austin Greenb. 1973USAmerican actor
- Seth Greenb. 1974USAmerican actor
- John Greenb. 1977USAmerican author and vlogger
- Eva Greenb. 1980FRFrench actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 61 sources across 37 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 430K | #41 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 416K | #42 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 413K | #37 |
| IT Italy | 意大利语姓名译名手册 (Xinhua Italian Name Manual) | — | — | — |
Reference works 8
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Green mean, and where does it come from?
- (i) medieval nickname for someone who wore green clothing, played the Green Man, or lived by a village green; (ii) anglicization of German Griin or Yiddish Grin; (iii) translation of Irish Gaelic surn… Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Green?
- In the etymology graph, Greene and Grün are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Green have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 430 thousand people named Green, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled green.
- How common is the name Green?
- In the United States, the national register counted 430,182 people named Green in 2010, about 1 in 773 residents.
- How common is Green compared with other names?
- In the United States, Green is the 42nd most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Green?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/greenThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Green” — the 42nd most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.