Find out how popular the last name Abeles is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Abeles.

Abeles, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Abeles surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Abeles in America

Abeles is the 49461st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Abeles surname appeared 425 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Abeles.

We can also compare 2010 data for Abeles to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Abeles

The surname Abeles originates from the German language and can be traced back to the late 13th century in the regions of Bavaria and Saxony. It is derived from the German word "Abel," which is a variant of the name Abel from the Bible. This name was likely adopted as a surname for its symbolic meaning of "breath" or "vanity."

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Abeles can be found in the Bavarian town of Landshut, where a certain Hainrich Abeles was mentioned in a municipal record from 1297. This document suggests that the name was already in use as a hereditary surname by this time.

In the 14th century, the name Abeles appeared in various medieval manuscripts, including the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, which contains several references to individuals with this surname in the region of Saxony. For example, a Johannes Abeles is mentioned in a land transaction from the year 1352.

During the Renaissance period, the name Abeles was relatively common among the educated classes in Germany. One notable figure was Johann Abeles (1460-1524), a humanist scholar and poet from Nuremberg who wrote extensively on classical literature and philosophy.

In the 17th century, the Abeles family established itself in the city of Frankfurt, where several members held prominent positions in the local government and trade guilds. One such individual was Philipp Abeles (1612-1678), a wealthy merchant and city councilor.

As the Abeles surname spread across German-speaking regions, it underwent various spelling variations, such as Abele, Abelen, and Abelis. Some of these variations were also influenced by local dialects and pronunciation shifts.

Notable individuals with the surname Abeles include:

1. Friedrich Abeles (1794-1876), a German businessman and philanthropist from Leipzig.
2. Otto Abeles (1824-1904), an Austrian composer and music teacher from Vienna.
3. Isidor Abeles (1859-1942), a German-Jewish lawyer and legal scholar from Berlin.
4. Rudolf Abeles (1883-1964), an Austrian chemist and professor at the University of Vienna.
5. Otto Abeles (1924-2015), a German-American physicist and pioneer in the field of electron microscopy.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Abeles

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Abeles.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Abeles was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Abeles has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Abeles was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Abeles, please contact us.

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