Surname statistics for Peterson

There are approximately 6,629 people named Peterson in the UK. That makes it the 1,603rd most common surname overall. Out of every million people in the UK, approximately 105 are named Peterson.

Frequency Comparisons
TotalRankFrequency %Per million people
Great Britain
United Kingdom (current)66291603N/A105
United Kingdom (1881 census)152327790.00551
Change since 1881+5106+1176+0.005+54
Other Countries
United States27504163N/A1020
Australia4002373N/A245

Top male forenames

David Peterson
John Peterson
Mark Peterson
Michael Peterson
Paul Peterson
James Peterson
Ian Peterson
Andrew Peterson
Christopher Peterson
Robert Peterson
Stephen Peterson
Eric Peterson
Gordon Peterson
Nigel Peterson
Neil Peterson
Craig Peterson
Alexander Peterson
Ronald Peterson
Vincent Peterson
Charles Peterson

Top female forenames

Sarah Peterson
Jane Peterson
Susan Peterson
Jacqueline Peterson
Michelle Peterson
Jennifer Peterson
Lisa Peterson
Margaret Peterson
Jayne Peterson
Sylvia Peterson
Julia Peterson
Julie Peterson
Karen Peterson
Sandra Peterson
Gillian Peterson
Christine Peterson
Carol Peterson
Edith Peterson
Dorothy Peterson
Rachael Peterson

Notes

  • Total is the total number of people with that surname.
  • Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
  • Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
  • Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

All of these are approximate figures, and the current figures especially so. The 1881 census figures are correct for what was recorded on the census, but we don't really know how accurate it was. At least, though the 1881 figures won't change, as it's a snapshot of a point in time. The current figures, by contrast, are variable according to births, deaths, migration and marriages, so the values shown here are only a best approximation to whatever was the case when the underlying data was collated and will not be the same as whatever the values are right now.

'N/A' indicates that we don't have data for this name in that country or time (usually because it's quite uncommon there and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one there with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the UK as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.