as a Last Name
- 175,509
- people in the U.S. have this name Get contact details for people named Porter
Meaning & Origins
English and Scottish: occupational name for the gatekeeper of a walled town or city, or the doorkeeper of a great house, castle, or monastery, from Middle English porter ‘doorkeeper’, ‘gatekeeper’ (Old French portier). The office often came with accommodation, lands, and other privileges for the bearer, and in some cases was hereditary, especially in the case of a royal castle. As an American surname, this has absorbed cognates and equivalents in other European languages, for example German Pförtner (see Fortner) and North German Poertner.
| 144th in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Quick facts
- Tens of Thousands
- of people in the U.S have this name
- 175,509
- to be exact (as of February 2011)
- Mississippi
- has the most people named Porter per capita
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
