The PRETTY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	823	27562	0	3
United States (1880 census)	95	32638	0	2
Change since 1880	+728	+5076	+N/A	+1
Other Countries
Australia	464	3436	0.003	28
United Kingdom	1,033	5124	0.002	23

Top States for PRETTY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Michigan	126	10798	0.001	13
North Carolina	108	7037	0.001	13
Arkansas	65	4912	0.002	24
California	52	43846	0.000	2
Virginia	30	19608	0.000	4
Top States for PRETTY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Montana	27	5635	0.003	30
Arkansas	65	4912	0.002	24
Vermont	9	10263	0.001	15
North Carolina	108	7037	0.001	13
South Dakota	10	13070	0.001	13

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.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one 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!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

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 USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called PRETTY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called PRETTY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called PRETTY in Michigan than any other state, but you are more likely to find a PRETTY by picking someone at random in Montana than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of PRETTY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Nickname

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the PRETTY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the PRETTY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of PRETTY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	574	69.74
Black/African American	200	24.3
White (Hispanic)	35	4.25
Mixed Race	9	1.09
Asian/Pacific	Less than 100	Insignificant
Native American/Alaskan	Less than 100	Insignificant

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the PRETTY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of PRETTY in historical publications

PRETTY. The earliest mention of this name is in the year 1192, wheu Engevan de Prretis attests the grant of the chapel of Hope-cum-Tideswell, by John, Earl of Moreton, to the cathedral of Lichfield. Its subsequent forms have corresponded with the changes of spelling in the adjective, thus : Praty, Pretie, Prettie, Pretty. In the XV. cent, the first of these was in use, and so Leland, born in that century, writes the adjective ; e. g. " a praty town." The name, however, has nothing to do with prettiness, but is derived from the Lat. 2)ratum, a meadow. The Prettys of Scotland and Ireland are of English origin. The name is also found in Italy and in Spain. In the latter country, the family bear for arms, " a gi'een meadow, floM'ered proper." Inf. Edw. Pretty, Esq., F.S.A.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to PRETTY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as PRETTY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.