1881 census county

Ayrshire surnames in the 1881 census

This page ranks surnames recorded in Ayrshire in 1881. The total column counts people with each surname in the county. Frequency shows the local share of the population. Index compares that share with the wider census.

County summary

4,011 surnames are listed for Ayrshire, covering 177,054 people in the county records.

The leading surname here is Wilson, with 3,842 people recorded in 1881.

Most common surnames in Ayrshire

Total favours larger counties and larger families. Frequency and index are better clues for where a surname stood out locally. Values above 1.00x mean the surname was more concentrated here than in the wider 1881 census.

#	Surname	Total	Frequency	Index
1	Wilson	3,842	1.76%	3.83x
2	Brown	3,374	1.54%	2.34x
3	Smith	3,113	1.42%	1.01x
4	Campbell	2,361	1.08%	6.38x
5	Young	1,946	0.890%	4.14x
6	Thomson	1,842	0.840%	6.31x
7	Reid	1,830	0.840%	7.97x
8	Stewart	1,763	0.810%	5.15x
9	Kerr	1,757	0.800%	14.74x
10	Robertson	1,617	0.740%	4.41x
11	Hamilton	1,534	0.700%	9.35x
12	Anderson	1,532	0.700%	3.55x
13	Gibson	1,501	0.690%	5.66x
14	Muir	1,435	0.660%	17.15x
15	Wallace	1,372	0.630%	9.16x
16	Clark	1,332	0.610%	2.03x
17	Murray	1,252	0.570%	4.62x
18	Dunlop	1,215	0.560%	34.49x
19	Ferguson	1,207	0.550%	7.79x
20	Crawford	1,206	0.550%	11.27x
21	Hunter	1,197	0.550%	5.33x
22	Walker	1,165	0.530%	1.59x
23	Boyd	1,158	0.530%	15.10x
24	Miller	1,157	0.530%	2.96x
25	Paterson	1,115	0.510%	7.49x
26	Stevenson	1,034	0.470%	6.74x
27	Allan	923	0.420%	6.72x
28	Mitchell	918	0.420%	2.07x
29	Scott	901	0.410%	1.63x
30	Paton	882	0.400%	18.03x
31	Taylor	864	0.400%	0.62x
32	Watson	845	0.390%	1.67x
33	Murdoch	840	0.380%	22.62x
34	Gray	837	0.380%	2.68x
35	Currie	820	0.380%	13.33x
36	Davidson	805	0.370%	4.38x
37	Kennedy	799	0.370%	6.06x
38	Morton	793	0.360%	6.79x
39	Orr	792	0.360%	21.50x
40	Baird	773	0.350%	16.53x
41	Ross	732	0.330%	3.06x
42	White	728	0.330%	1.04x
43	Fulton	727	0.330%	26.35x
44	Graham	723	0.330%	2.88x
45	Findlay	705	0.320%	15.56x
46	Wyllie	705	0.320%	46.05x
47	Jamieson	695	0.320%	11.41x
48	Black	666	0.300%	4.70x
49	Alexander	664	0.300%	5.74x
50	Johnston	651	0.300%	3.69x
51	Gilmour	649	0.300%	20.98x
52	Richmond	648	0.300%	13.53x
53	Millar	647	0.300%	8.11x
54	Templeton	646	0.300%	40.00x
55	Martin	645	0.300%	1.20x
56	Morrison	640	0.290%	3.72x
57	Barr	636	0.290%	12.03x
58	Logan	632	0.290%	12.19x
59	Caldwell	626	0.290%	18.30x
60	Bell	617	0.280%	1.50x
61	Howie	605	0.280%	28.21x
62	Neil	577	0.260%	19.95x
63	Johnstone	563	0.260%	5.70x
64	Cowan	560	0.260%	12.56x
65	Kelly	558	0.260%	2.33x
66	Dick	547	0.250%	11.22x
67	Irvine	533	0.240%	11.07x
68	Burns	531	0.240%	3.62x
69	Shaw	513	0.230%	1.28x
70	Mair	511	0.230%	25.29x
71	Lindsay	508	0.230%	7.13x
72	Aitken	506	0.230%	8.82x
73	Cameron	503	0.230%	2.96x
74	Henderson	503	0.230%	2.12x
75	Dickie	501	0.230%	29.20x
76	Houston	488	0.220%	17.53x
77	Sloan	483	0.220%	23.46x
78	Blair	476	0.220%	8.40x
79	Hannah	475	0.220%	16.71x
80	Love	471	0.220%	9.09x
81	Frew	460	0.210%	41.87x
82	Barclay	455	0.210%	10.11x
83	Marshall	449	0.210%	1.22x
84	Hill	444	0.200%	0.80x
85	Simpson	439	0.200%	1.15x
86	Weir	436	0.200%	7.67x
87	Andrew	429	0.200%	6.19x
88	King	429	0.200%	0.90x
89	Watt	429	0.200%	5.12x
90	Nisbet	428	0.200%	18.54x
91	Gemmell	427	0.200%	32.49x
92	Parker	422	0.190%	1.01x
93	Ramsay	419	0.190%	7.44x
94	Gordon	416	0.190%	3.02x
95	Park	414	0.190%	6.11x
96	Pollock	412	0.190%	12.97x
97	Cook	410	0.190%	0.94x
98	Aird	402	0.180%	35.34x
99	Douglas	402	0.180%	3.80x
100	Guthrie	394	0.180%	14.30x