Black
A nickname surname for someone with dark hair, complexion, or dress.
The #174 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 1,995 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Black comes from Old English and Middle English words meaning "black" or "dark." As a surname, it was first used as a nickname for someone with dark hair, a dark complexion, or sometimes dark clothing. In some early records it could also refer to a person who had literally blackened his face, though the broader sense is simply "the dark one."
History
This is an old and widespread English and Scottish surname, already appearing in medieval records. It could arise independently in many places wherever someone was identified by a dark appearance, so not all modern Black families share a single ancestor. The name also appears in Gaelic contexts as a translation or rendering of surnames built on dubh, "black."
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early English sources sometimes used Black as a descriptive byname alongside its opposite, White, to distinguish people with similar names.
From the historical record
“is found in H.E. BLACK. Blac and Blache are pras- Domesday names, and doubtless refer in general to the dark complexion and black hair of the original owners. Mr. Wright tells us that Wulric the Black, the ally of the famous Hereward the Saxon, Avas " so named because on one occasion he had blackened his face with…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom