Spear Surname
Approximately 22,173 people bear this surname
Spear Surname Definition:
This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the spier,' i.e. watchman; v. Scorer. The final 's' in Spiers is genitive.
Robertas Spyer, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.
Richard Spyre, 1515: Register of the University of Oxford.
Read More About This SurnameSpear Surname Distribution Map
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 17,610 | 1:20,583 | 2,599 |
| England | 1,915 | 1:29,096 | 3,928 |
| Canada | 762 | 1:48,354 | 5,867 |
| Australia | 557 | 1:48,466 | 6,051 |
| Wales | 437 | 1:7,081 | 794 |
| South Africa | 211 | 1:256,766 | 25,923 |
| New Zealand | 148 | 1:30,597 | 5,323 |
| Uganda | 107 | 1:364,853 | 23,632 |
| Malawi | 105 | 1:163,039 | 16,499 |
| Scotland | 46 | 1:116,387 | 7,543 |
| Venezuela | 24 | 1:1,258,503 | 17,711 |
| Germany | 23 | 1:3,500,237 | 154,763 |
| Singapore | 17 | 1:323,983 | 13,856 |
| India | 16 | 1:47,941,586 | 492,263 |
| Liberia | 14 | 1:314,895 | 17,893 |
| United Arab Emirates | 12 | 1:763,523 | 25,625 |
| Brazil | 12 | 1:17,839,528 | 311,080 |
| Iran | 12 | 1:6,398,544 | 138,820 |
| Nicaragua | 10 | 1:602,109 | 3,988 |
| Mexico | 10 | 1:12,412,620 | 43,480 |
| France | 10 | 1:6,642,272 | 293,169 |
| China | 10 | 1:136,732,157 | 7,199 |
| Thailand | 7 | 1:10,091,192 | 512,203 |
| Tanzania | 5 | 1:10,588,323 | 75,430 |
| Indonesia | 5 | 1:26,449,839 | 597,308 |
| Russia | 5 | 1:28,824,611 | 530,332 |
| Philippines | 5 | 1:20,247,645 | 262,352 |
| Vanuatu | 4 | 1:65,819 | 1,151 |
| Nigeria | 4 | 1:44,285,690 | 437,567 |
| Afghanistan | 4 | 1:8,038,296 | 30,874 |
| Switzerland | 4 | 1:2,053,229 | 97,179 |
| Egypt | 4 | 1:22,983,938 | 62,368 |
| Papua New Guinea | 3 | 1:2,717,906 | 153,458 |
| Vietnam | 3 | 1:30,882,018 | 4,101 |
| Turkey | 3 | 1:25,940,474 | 162,557 |
| Moldova | 3 | 1:1,187,123 | 48,973 |
| Northern Ireland | 3 | 1:615,012 | 18,081 |
| Japan | 3 | 1:42,614,764 | 59,022 |
| Italy | 3 | 1:20,385,563 | 143,117 |
| Zambia | 2 | 1:7,924,961 | 45,994 |
| Iceland | 2 | 1:190,045 | 6,825 |
| Barbados | 2 | 1:143,724 | 1,981 |
| Spain | 2 | 1:23,376,018 | 128,922 |
| South Korea | 2 | 1:25,620,128 | 4,175 |
| Kenya | 2 | 1:23,089,950 | 83,168 |
| Zimbabwe | 1 | 1:15,438,240 | 133,260 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 1:159,356,773 | 26,077 |
| Hungary | 1 | 1:9,816,277 | 73,288 |
| Azerbaijan | 1 | 1:9,649,122 | 47,873 |
| Bermuda | 1 | 1:65,279 | 3,010 |
| Bulgaria | 1 | 1:6,978,905 | 86,260 |
| American Samoa | 1 | 1:55,758 | 3,072 |
| Ecuador | 1 | 1:15,905,846 | 50,210 |
| United States Virgin Islands | 1 | 1:110,375 | 6,934 |
| Georgia | 1 | 1:3,745,545 | 47,852 |
| Ghana | 1 | 1:27,020,692 | 23,742 |
| Greece | 1 | 1:11,079,790 | 145,225 |
| Honduras | 1 | 1:8,816,442 | 9,272 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 1:610,626 | 30,336 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 1:16,887,176 | 156,465 |
| Taiwan | 1 | 1:23,444,746 | 93,622 |
| Syria | 1 | 1:19,301,022 | 22,457 |
| Iraq | 1 | 1:35,021,654 | 31,813 |
| Israel | 1 | 1:8,557,634 | 182,558 |
| Serbia | 1 | 1:7,144,948 | 38,459 |
| Jamaica | 1 | 1:2,869,947 | 13,896 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 | 1:30,855,817 | 63,028 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 1:580,542 | 15,155 |
| Ireland | 1 | 1:4,708,939 | 29,543 |
| Myanmar | 1 | 1:51,937,985 | 2,166 |
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 51 | 1:86,860 | 5,892 |
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 1,381 | 1:17,651 | 2,555 |
| Wales | 26 | 1:60,324 | 2,968 |
| Scotland | 1 | 1:3,743,216 | 32,299 |
| Place | Incidence | Frequency | Rank in Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 5,444 | 1:9,225 | 1,169 |
The alternate forms: Špear (16) are calculated separately.
Spear (571) may also be a first name.
Spear Surname Meaning
From Where Does The Surname Originate? meaning and history
This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the spier,' i.e. watchman; v. Scorer. The final 's' in Spiers is genitive.
Robertas Spyer, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.
Richard Spyre, 1515: Register of the University of Oxford.
1662-3. John Spier, Oxfordshire, and Jane Price: Marriage Lic. (Faculty Office).
1802. Married — Robert Spear and Maria Baker: St. George, Hanover Square.
(English) 1 metonymic for a Spearman [Middle English Old English spere, a spear] 2 a form of Spyer, q.v.
(English) The watchman or lookout man.
From the weapon; like Sword, Pike, &c.
Same as Spurr, which see.
From the German, Speer; from the Dutch, Spier; a personal name.
Spear Demographics
Average Spear Salary in
United States
$44,426 USD
Per year
Average Salary in
United States
$43,149 USD
Per year
View the highest/lowest earning families in The United States
Spear Last Name Facts
Where Does The Last Name Spear Come From? nationality or country of origin
The surname Spear (Russian: Спеар) is found in The United States more than any other country/territory. It can occur as: Špear. Click here to see other potential spellings of Spear.
How Common Is The Last Name Spear? popularity and diffusion
This last name is the 24,389th most commonly used surname on a worldwide basis It is held by around 1 in 328,668 people. The surname Spear occurs predominantly in The Americas, where 83 percent of Spear live; 83 percent live in North America and 83 percent live in Anglo-North America. Spear is also the 350,891st most frequently occurring first name worldwide, held by 571 people.
This surname is most frequently held in The United States, where it is held by 17,610 people, or 1 in 20,583. In The United States it is mostly concentrated in: California, where 10 percent live, Florida, where 6 percent live and Texas, where 6 percent live. Barring The United States it is found in 69 countries. It also occurs in England, where 9 percent live and Canada, where 3 percent live.
Spear Family Population Trend historical fluctuation
The occurrence of Spear has changed through the years. In The United States the number of people who held the Spear surname grew 323 percent between 1880 and 2014; in England it grew 139 percent between 1881 and 2014; in Wales it grew 1,681 percent between 1881 and 2014; in Scotland it grew 4,600 percent between 1881 and 2014 and in Ireland it fell 98 percent between 1901 and 2014.
Spear Last Name Statistics demography
The religious devotion of those holding the Spear surname is primarily Catholic (54%) in Ireland.
In The United States those holding the Spear surname are 8.57% more likely to be registered Republicans than The US average, with 55.34% being registered to vote for the political party.
The amount Spear earn in different countries varies somewhat. In South Africa they earn 6.99% more than the national average, earning R 254,256 per year; in United States they earn 2.96% more than the national average, earning $44,426 USD per year and in Canada they earn 14.31% more than the national average, earning $56,793 CAD per year.
Phonetically Similar Names
Spear Name Transliterations
| Transliteration | ICU Latin | Percentage of Incidence |
|---|---|---|
| Spear in the Russian language | ||
| Спеар | spear | - |
Search for Another Surname
Spear Reference & Research
Speer-Spear-Speir DNA Website - A web page dedicated to the genetic research of those who bear the surname and its variants.
Speer-Spear-Speir FamilyTree DNA Project - A description of a group researching the paternal lines of men who bear the surname with the help of DNA analysis.
The name statistics are still in development, sign up for information on more maps and data
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 Spear
- To find out more about this surname's family history, lookup records on FamilySearch, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and Ancestry. Further information may be obtained by DNA analysis