Shakespear Surname

427,422nd
Most Common
surname in the World

Approximately 808 people bear this surname

Most prevalent in:
United States
Highest density in:
Guyana

Shakespear Surname Definition:

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'a spearman.' , i.e. Shake-lance.

Henry Shakelaunce, 1273 Hundred Rolls.

Hugh Shakeshaft (Eng. Sur., 2nd edit.), i.e. Shake-shaft. It is impossible to retail all the nonsense that has been written about this name.

Read More About This Surname

Shakespear Surname Distribution Map

PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States3241:1,118,70080,737
Australia1421:190,11118,903
Tanzania951:557,28035,395
England951:586,50635,379
Argentina401:1,068,58565,578
New Zealand301:150,94417,319
Canada241:1,535,233104,339
Jamaica221:130,4524,751
Guyana71:108,8897,175
Wales41:773,63329,106
India31:255,688,4611,306,352
Russia31:48,041,019639,186
Solomon Islands21:290,01419,875
Kenya11:46,179,900103,372
Syria11:19,301,02222,457
Spain11:46,752,036156,870
South Korea11:51,240,2568,015
South Africa11:54,177,704343,732
Romania11:20,077,87089,414
Norway11:5,142,286129,201
Malaysia11:29,494,225409,885
Afghanistan11:32,153,18360,828
Japan11:127,844,29373,547
Ghana11:27,020,69223,742
Germany11:80,505,459560,955
Egypt11:91,935,754132,737
Chile11:17,616,47493,597
Brazil11:214,074,3321,693,628
Armenia11:2,930,18022,770
Albania11:2,914,05529,474
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
Ireland41:1,107,46726,093
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
England3241:75,2338,226
PlaceIncidenceFrequencyRank in Area
United States1251:401,74929,788

Shakespear (1,053) may also be a first name.

Shakespear Surname Meaning

From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history

This surname is derived from a nickname. 'a spearman.' , i.e. Shake-lance.

Henry Shakelaunce, 1273 Hundred Rolls.

Hugh Shakeshaft (Eng. Sur., 2nd edit.), i.e. Shake-shaft. It is impossible to retail all the nonsense that has been written about this name. Silly guessing has run riot on the subject. Never a name in English nomenclature so simple or so certain in its origin. It is exactly what it looks—Shakespear; one of a class of nicknames, nearly all of which have come down to today because that which was derisive in them had been soon forgotten, and they had become almost accepted as official. 'Catch-poll' (which see) actually attained the honours of an authorized and official title. A Serjeant who cleared the way was equally well known as' Drawsword' (which see), a bailiff as 'Wagstaff,' a huntsman as 'Wag-horn,' a jailer as 'Shake-lock, 'a pikeman or spearman' as 'Shake-lance' and 'Shake-spear,' and a well-known bird, from its customary habit, as a 'Wag-tail.' Wag and shake were the chief elements in these vigorous sobriquets; v. names under Wagand Shake-, and for others, not in our nomenclature, v. Halliwell.

Robertus Schaksper, couper, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1730. Married — William Fellows and Margaret Shakespear: St. George, Hanover Square.

1748. — William Guy and Rebecca Shakspar: ibid.

A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1896) by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

(English) a nickname for a spear-carrying individual, as a Beadle, Sergeant, and (more especially) a Soldier [from Middle English schaken, Old English sc(e)acan, to shake + Middle English Old English spere] Robertus Schaksper.—Yorks Poll-Tax, A.D. 1379.

Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspeare. —Bapt. Reg. Stratf.-on-Avon, 26th April, 1564.

Cp. Shakelance and Shakeshaft, the name ‘William Sharpspere’ found in the Close Rolls, a.d. 1278, and the old term ‘shakebuckler’ for a bully; also the Roman Quirinus [from Latin quiris, a spear]

Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison

Shakespear Last Name Facts

Where Does The Last Name Shakespear Come From? nationality or country of origin

The surname Shakespear is more frequently found in The United States than any other country/territory. It can be rendered as a variant:. Click here to see other potential spellings of this name.

How Common Is The Last Name Shakespear? popularity and diffusion

This last name is the 427,422nd most frequently occurring last name world-wide It is held by around 1 in 9,019,240 people. It is primarily found in The Americas, where 52 percent of Shakespear reside; 43 percent reside in North America and 43 percent reside in Anglo-North America. Shakespear is also the 246,734th most frequent given name world-wide It is held by 1,053 people.

Shakespear is most frequent in The United States, where it is carried by 324 people, or 1 in 1,118,700. In The United States Shakespear is mostly concentrated in: Utah, where 48 percent live, Alabama, where 6 percent live and Nevada, where 6 percent live. Without taking into account The United States this last name is found in 29 countries. It is also common in Australia, where 18 percent live and Tanzania, where 12 percent live.

Shakespear Family Population Trend historical fluctuation

The prevalency of Shakespear has changed over time. In The United States the number of people who held the Shakespear surname rose 259 percent between 1880 and 2014 and in England it declined 71 percent between 1881 and 2014.

Shakespear Last Name Statistics demography

The religious adherence of those bearing the last name is primarily Presbyterian (100%) in Ireland.

In The United States Shakespear are 33.88% more likely to be registered Republicans than The US average, with 80.65% being registered to vote for the party.

The amount Shakespear earn in different countries varies notably. In United States they earn 6.64% less than the national average, earning $40,285 USD per year and in Canada they earn 12.52% more than the national average, earning $55,902 CAD per year.

Phonetically Similar Names

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Footnotes

  • Surnames are taken as the first part of an person's inherited family name, caste, clan name or in some cases patronymic
  • Descriptions may contain details on the name's etymology, origin, ethnicity and history. They are largely reproduced from 3rd party sources; diligence is advised on accepting their validity - more information
  • Name distribution statistics are generated from a global database of over 4 billion people - more information
  • Heatmap: Dark red means there is a higher occurrence of the name, transitioning to light yellow signifies a progressively lower occurrence. Clicking on selected countries will show mapping at a regional level
  • Rank: Name are ranked by incidence using the ordinal ranking method; the name that occurs the most is assigned a rank of 1; name that occur less frequently receive an incremented rank; if two or more name occur the same number of times they are assigned the same rank and successive rank is incremented by the total preceeding names
  • Ethnic group cannot necessarily be determined by geographic occurrence
  • Similar: Names listed in the "Similar" section are phonetically similar and may not have any relation to Shakespear
  • To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on Family​Search, My​Heritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis