Person

surname · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Person is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. Recorded meaning: From Middle English persoun, personne et al., from Anglo-Norman parsone, persoun et al.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 4.9K(measured from records)
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 33K
  • NZNew Zealand≈1 in 13K

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)

67,411 people, 2010

Sources
390 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 4.9K (inferred from the name graph)

United States

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Derivation of Person: each step is the form the one above it came from.
Person
  1. Middle Englishpersoun(measured from records)
  2. Anglo-Normanparsone(measured from records)
  3. Etruscan𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖φersu“mask”(measured from records)

From Middle English persoun, personne et al., from Anglo-Norman parsone, persoun et al. (Old French persone (“human being”), French personne), and its source Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), perhaps a loanword from Etruscan 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”). In this sense, displaced native man, which came to mean primarily "adult male" in Middle English; see Old English mann. Doublet of parson and persona.

Sources 3

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Wiktionary
  • Deshayes, Dictionnaire étymologique du breton (2003)

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Person 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.

Where Person is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States—67,4111 in 4.9K70KPerson390
FR France—≈3,600 est.≈1 in 19K385Person6
GB United Kingdom—≈2,000 est.≈1 in 33K57Person87
EG Egypt—≈1,300 est.≈1 in 78K—Person17
DZ Algeria—≈1,200 est.≈1 in 36K—Person7
NZ New Zealand—≈370 est.≈1 in 13K—Person21
NO Norway—2501 in 22K250Person18
IE Ireland—≈240 est.≈1 in 22K—Person10
LK Sri Lanka#223≈140 est.≈1 in 166K—Person3

67,411 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; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Person is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French surname17 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, Spain

    Also written Pèrson, Përson, Pêrsön, Përsõn, Pérson

  • Spanish surname14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Persón, Pêrsôñ, Pérsõn, Pĕřšôń, Përšôñ

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Pérson

  • Swahili surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Pĕrsòn

  • Polish surname19 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, Sweden, United States, Croatia

    Languages: Polish, Croatian, Bulgarian

    Also written Persson, Peršon, Персон, Persón, Pëřśöñ

  • Chinese surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Myanmar (Burma), United Kingdom

    Languages: Chinese, Burmese

    Also written Pëřśõñ, Pêřšôñ, Pêřsön

  • Indonesian surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Malaysia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Pérsoñ, Peŕsoñ, Pérson, Pëřŝöň, Peřsoň

  • Italian surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Italy, United Kingdom

    Also written Peršon

44 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1400160018002000Olaus Petri, b. 1493Ture Person, b. 1892Houston Person, b. 1934Luis Sérgio Person, b. 1936Carl Person, b. 1936Chuck Person, b. 1964Robert Person, b. 1969Marina Person, b. 1969Wesley Person, b. 1971Mike Person, b. 1988

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 33 sources across 18 countries.

Official registers attesting Person
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202070K#463
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201067K#496
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200019K#1,719
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1961539—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1951539—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1941529—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1971476—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1921415—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1901401—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1981387—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1991385—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1931384—

Reference works 5

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 Person mean, and where does it come from?
From Middle English persoun, personne et al., from Anglo-Norman parsone, persoun et al. Recorded by The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland and Wiktionary and 1 other source.
In which country does Person have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 67 thousand people named Person, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled person.
Where is Person most common?
Person is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 4.9 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Person?
In the United States, the national register counted 67,411 people named Person in 2010, about 1 in 4.9 thousand residents.
How common is Person compared with other names?
In Sri Lanka, Person is the 223rd most common surname of 20,196 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Person?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/person

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (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, “Person” — the 223rd most common surname in Sri Lanka. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Person parses inside a full name →