# Does anyone know a white person with the surname "Washington?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 8, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768 "2009-05-08T17:54:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/1 "2009-05-08T17:54:46Z")
Either personally, or otherwise?
You may take as a given I’m aware of the Laurences and George, and George nephew the SC justice.
Anyone in this century?
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### Author:  [@Cowboy8467](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowboy8467)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/2 "2009-05-08T18:03:34Z")
The only people I’ve ever met with that surname have all been black.
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### Author:  [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/3 "2009-05-08T18:07:16Z")
This one dude I knew, named uh-- Bill, or Harry maybe, um, Tom? Oh! It was George. Took me awhile to remember that one, it was a LONG while ago that I knew him. 🙂
I wonder why this trend. Someone had to be descended from Gee Dub, right?
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/4 "2009-05-08T18:19:44Z")
Does it have to do with former slaves taking the name Washington as a surname?
Also, I tried to think but couldn’t. I thought of a fictional character (Little Washington in the book Prep)–also black.
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### Author:  [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/5 "2009-05-08T18:26:59Z")
I found one on Google:
> **[Ashley Washington - 2008-09 - Equestrian](https://rwuhawks.com/sports/equestrian/roster/ashley-washington/424)**
>
> Ashley WashingtonAdvanced Walk-Trot-Canter -
>
>
>
> 2008-09: Participated in a team fourth-place finish at the Connecticut College Show with a personal fourth-place
She has three sisters, so this branch of the Washington family tree probably won’t be carrying on the name.
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### Author:  [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/6 "2009-05-08T18:43:46Z")
Several years ago, _60 Minutes_ did a feature on the Washingtons who would be the USA’s royal family had George accepted an invitation to be crowned king. None were direct descendants of the president – the “Father of our Country” had a stepson and stepdaughter, but no children of his own. Most, if not all, of the people interviewed were pretty apparently Caucasian.
[This article](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27075856/) purports to have identified the man who’d most likely be King of America had the monarchy option been selected. Paul Washington and son Bill look white to me.
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### Author:  [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/7 "2009-05-08T19:58:36Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#):
>
> I wonder why this trend. Someone had to be descended from Gee Dub, right?
He didn’t have any children.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/8 "2009-05-08T20:15:25Z")
Nope. Never met a single one.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/9 "2009-05-08T20:36:58Z")
I work with one. He’s one of our A/V geeks.
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### Author:  [@boofuu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boofuu)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/10 "2009-05-08T21:19:09Z")
> [@Cowboy8467](#):
>
> The only people I’ve ever met with that surname have all been black.
Same here. I have a had a few students surnamed Washington.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/11 "2009-05-08T21:25:20Z")
If you look in the 1920 census, and pick a state such as California, you get 147 people with the surname Washington.
78 were listed as Black, 42 listed as White, with the remaining number described as “M” which I believe stood for mulatto in the census that year.
If we look at Idaho for 1920, we see 12 people named Washington–6 listed as white, 3 as Black, and 3 as “M.”
Picking a Southern State(where you can appreciate the problems with sheer numbers), let’s take North Carolina which only had 309 people named Washington.
4-were Indians, 28 were mulattoes, and 27 Whites and the remaining were all described as Black.
My data doesn’t take into account the fact that many of these people were in the same family. It doesn’t indicate that there were that many families, but rather persons.
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/12 "2009-05-08T21:26:32Z")
I’m sure I have, just none spring to mind. There is a Washington family from Pontotoc County, MS (close to where I was raised). [Here](http://washington-family.us/) is a site mentioning them and their Washington Ranch.
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### Author:  [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/13 "2009-05-09T00:21:44Z")
I went all through school with Charlie and his brother Andy was in the grade below us. We’re all in our mid forties now.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/14 "2009-05-09T01:27:33Z")
I can’t recall meeting anyone of that surname, white or otherwise.
But I looked up my state’s white pages. There are just 46 residences that include folks surnamed Washington. Do we suppose that most of them are white, given 97.5% of people in the state are, or assume that most of them make up part of the 1% that are black?
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/15 "2009-05-09T06:44:07Z")
Might you have better luck finding white Washingtons in the UK, where George’s family was from?
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### Author:  [@whistlepig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whistlepig)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/16 "2009-05-09T06:59:06Z")
Dennis Washington, millionaire industrialist from Montana. The University of Montana football station is named after him.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/17 "2009-05-09T10:30:50Z")
I never met somebody called Washington. You should find out if the polled people have met more than one family named Washington.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/18 "2009-05-09T17:34:53Z")
> [@elfkin477](#):
>
> But I looked up my state’s white pages. There are just 46 residences that include folks surnamed Washington. Do we suppose that most of them are white, given 97.5% of people in the state are, or assume that most of them make up part of the 1% that are black?
Well, you might get a pulse on the percentages by looking at the first names. Just sayin’. . .
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/19 "2009-05-09T18:15:25Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#):
>
> I never met somebody called Washington.
I’m racking my brain, and I think this is the case for me, as well. Of course, I’m bad with names, but still, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever met someone with the surname Washington.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-a-white-person-with-the-surname-washington/495768/20 "2009-05-09T18:36:07Z")
What a stupid OP. Bricker, you can do better.
FWIW, I worked for a while with a very very white guy named Dave Washington. He was quite the leftist, and a very nice guy, but his ethnicity was pure whitebread AFAIK.
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