The Qureshi surname

In the 2010 U.S. Census, 6,966 people carried this name — #5,035 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 42,400 people counted. That is up 56% from 4,473 in 2000.

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Where the name comes from

The origin of the Qureshi surname

From Arabic قُرَشِيّ (qurašiyy).

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org) — entry «Qureshi» (English), by Wiktionary contributors · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · excerpt, lightly adapted.

In Switzerland’s population statistics

56 people named Qureshi live in Switzerland.

They live in 5 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, most of all in Zurich.

Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.

Where they live today

Zurich 23
Geneva 14
Vaud 11
Aargau 5
Lucerne 3

Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), «Surnames of the permanent resident population by canton», 2025, opendata.swiss/en/dataset/nachnamen-der-standigen-wohnbevolkerung-nach-kanton3 · names with fewer than 3 bearers in a canton are not published.

In Belgium’s population register

At least 53 people named Qureshi live in Belgium.

Statbel only publishes a name in a municipality when five or more people there share it, so the real number is higher. Most of them live in Antwerp.

Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.

Where they live today

Antwerp 29
Brussels-Capital 8
West Flanders 6
East Flanders 5
Liège 5

Statbel (Statistics Belgium), family names of the population by municipality, 1 January 2026 — CC BY 4.0.

In France’s civil register

France’s register of deaths holds 23 people named Qureshi.

Most of them — 14 — were born outside France. Those born in France came from 7 départements, most often Val-d’Oise.

Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.

Where they were born

Born outside France 14
Val-d’Oise 3
Indre-et-Loire 1
Marne 1
Rhône 1
Hauts-de-Seine 1
Seine-Saint-Denis 1
Val-de-Marne 1

Fichier des personnes décédées, INSEE — Licence Ouverte 2.0 · deaths recorded in France since 1970, by place of birth.

In the Nordic population registers

564 people named Qureshi are counted in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Sweden’s figure is from 31 December 2022, the last count Statistics Sweden published. Norway publishes only surnames with 200 or more bearers. Finland counts its citizens, at home or abroad.

Counted, by country

Norway (2025) 258
Sweden (2022) 229
Finland (2026) 77

Own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), surnames with at least two bearers, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 20 or more bearers shown) · Statistics Norway (SSB, ssb.no), table 12891, 2025 — CC BY 4.0 · Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV), Finland, surname statistics, August 2026 — CC BY 4.0.

In Scotland’s registers today

Qureshi was recorded 15 times in Scotland’s registers of births, marriages and deaths in 2025.

That made it the 1427th most common name in those registers, shared with others on the same count. Each birth counts the child’s surname, each marriage both partners’ and each death the surname of the person who died — a yearly count of registrations, not of the people who live in Scotland.

National Records of Scotland, «Most Common Surnames, 2025» (published 26 May 2026): every surname recorded 10 or more times in the 2025 registers, and the series from 1975 · different spellings are counted separately — © Crown copyright 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

In print

Qureshi in American newspapers,
1951–1962.

Newspaper page from The Chronicle Star The Moss Point Advertiser carrying the name Qureshi
The Chronicle Star The Moss Point Advertiser 1951-11-23
Newspaper page from Milford Chronicle carrying the name Qureshi
Milford Chronicle 1952-01-25
Newspaper page from Navajo Times carrying the name Qureshi
Navajo Times 1962-04-25

Chronicling America, Library of Congress — digitised newspapers in the public domain · 44 pages in all carry the name.

In print

Qureshi in Australian newspapers,
1930s–1990s.

64 articles name a Mr, Mrs or Miss Qureshi. The most, 17, date from the 1950s. Weighed against how much of each state’s press from the same decades has been digitised, it stands out most in the Australian Capital Territory, at 1.5 times its expected share.

Articles, by state

ACT (Canberra) 26
Queensland 10
New South Wales 7
South Australia 7
Victoria 3
Tasmania 2
Western Australia 2

Trove, National Library of Australia (trove.nla.gov.au) · articles in its digitised newspapers that name a Mr, Mrs or Miss Qureshi.

Who carried it

People named Qureshi,
with a public archive behind them.

  • Alla Rakha
    Alla Rakha 1919–2000 · composer
  • Mohammad Shafi Qureshi
    Mohammad Shafi Qureshi 1929–2016 · politician
  • Aziz Qureshi
    Aziz Qureshi 1941–2024 · politician

Wikidata (CC0) · portraits via Wikimedia Commons, shown cropped — Alla Rakha: Alephalpha, CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0); Mohammad Shafi Qureshi: President's Secretariat, GODL-India (data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf); Aziz Qureshi: President's Secretariat, GODL-India (data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf) · 63 lives in all are documented under this name.

In the public record

People named Qureshi,
in the records of 3 countries.

Soldiers, farmers, migrants and neighbours who carried the name and left a trace in public archives. Everyone shown here died long ago or was born more than a century ago.

United States1 record

1 record of the Qureshi name in the United States U.S. alien registration index, 1940–1955
  1. The receipt card sent under the U.S. Alien Registration Act of 1940
    Example: U.S. alien registration card, 1940s
    Alien registration Mohammad A. Qureshi

    Born 1918 in India. Listed in the U.S. alien registration index, 1940–1955.

    U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain)

Counts: U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Alien Registration Receipt Card, Form AR-3, photo by Bobjgalindo via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

France3 records

3 records of the Qureshi name in France France's national death register, 1970–2001
  1. A page of the death register of Nice, 1930
    Example: French death register, 1930
    Death record Mohammad Farid Qureshi

    Born 1951 in Pakistan; died 2001 in Paris.

    Insee, Fichier des personnes décédées (Licence Ouverte)

Showing 1 of 3 records for Qureshi in France.

Counts: Insee, Fichier des personnes décédées (Licence Ouverte). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Death register of Nice, 1930, Archives départementales des Alpes-Maritimes (public domain).

Canada2 records

2 records of the Qureshi name in Canada City of Winnipeg cemetery records
  1. Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Example: Canadian cemetery
    Burial record Sajid Qureshi

    Died 1975; buried at Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

    City of Winnipeg. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Winnipeg.

Showing 1 of 2 records for Qureshi in Canada.

Counts: City of Winnipeg. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Winnipeg. Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Halifax, photo by Edgar El (CC BY 3.0).

Nearby in the index

Surnames next to Qureshi.

When the index is not enough

This page says where Qureshi is.
A volume says what happened to it.

Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.

See the Qureshi volume
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