Whitby
loc · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Whitby is a name written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in Canada. Recorded meaning: usually from Whitby, North Riding of Yorkshire; first attested Tiece de Witebi 1181 P (Y).
- CACanada
- GBUnited Kingdom
- NZNew Zealand
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Canada (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 274 (measured from records)
no count published
Highest-authority source
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
usually from Whitby, North Riding of Yorkshire; first attested Tiece de Witebi 1181 P (Y). Also from Whitby, Cheshire
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Whitby counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA Canada | — | — | Whitby | 61 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | 4.1K | Whitby | 168 |
| US United States | — | 2.5K | Whitby | 274 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | — | Whitby | 25 |
| AU Australia | — | — | Whitby | 117 |
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: Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010. 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)
Whitby is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, Yorks., so called from ON hvitr white + byr farm, settle¬ ment, or from a place of the same name in Ches., originally named with OE hwTt white (i.e. stone-built) + burh manorhouse, fortified place.
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In English, A placename:
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Old English; "the white town"
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
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)
- Daniel Whitbyb. 1638GBBritish theologian
- Mary Anne Whitbyb. 1783GBEnglish women scientist (1783-1850)
- Beatrice Whitbyb. 1855GBBritish author
- Philip Hugh Whitby Hicksb. 1895GBBritish Army officer (1895–1967)
- Tim Whitbyb. 1901British screenwriter, television producer and director
- John Whitby Allenb. 1913USAmerican model railroader (1913-1973)
- Janice Whitbyb. 1950USAmerican actress
- Michael Whitbyb. 1952GBBritish historian
- Whit Hertfordb. 1978USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Audrey Whitbyb. 1996USAmerican 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 15 sources across 7 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 4.1K | #1,958 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.5K | #12,279 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.5K | #12,086 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.4K | #12,017 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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
- Where does the name Whitby come from?
- usually from Whitby, North Riding of Yorkshire; first attested Tiece de Witebi 1181 P (Y). Also from Whitby, Cheshire Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- What does the name Whitby mean?
- Recorded meaning: usually from Whitby, North Riding of Yorkshire; first attested Tiece de Witebi 1181 P (Y).
- In which country does Whitby have the most bearers?
- Whitby is most frequently recorded in Canada, where it is most often spelled whitby.
What do you want to know about Whitby?
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/whitbyThe 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, “Whitby”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.