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

Amdahl, 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 Amdahl surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Amdahl in America

Amdahl is the 40494th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Amdahl surname appeared 540 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 Amdahl.

We can also compare 2010 data for Amdahl 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 Amdahl

The surname Amdahl is believed to have originated in Scandinavia, specifically in Sweden or Norway. It is thought to be a variant of the Old Norse name Amundardal, which translates to "valley of Amundr." Amundr was a common Old Norse personal name derived from the elements "amu" meaning "protection" and "hundr" meaning "warrior."

The earliest recorded instances of the Amdahl surname can be traced back to the 16th century in Sweden. It was primarily concentrated in the regions of Dalarna and Värmland, where the name was likely derived from a place name referencing a valley or dale associated with someone named Amundr.

In the 17th century, the Amdahl name appears in various church records and census lists in Sweden and Norway. One notable early bearer of the name was Hans Amdahl, a Norwegian farmer born in 1642 in Hamar, Norway.

As Scandinavian migration to the United States increased in the 19th century, the Amdahl surname began to appear in American records. One of the earliest documented instances was John Amdahl, a Norwegian immigrant who settled in Dane County, Wisconsin, in the 1850s.

One of the most famous individuals with the Amdahl surname was Gene Amdahl, an American computer architect and entrepreneur. Born in 1922 in Flandreau, South Dakota, Amdahl made significant contributions to the development of IBM's System/360 mainframe computer and later founded his own company, Amdahl Corporation, in 1970.

Other notable individuals with the Amdahl surname include:

1. Anna Amdahl (1878-1957), a Norwegian-American educator and suffragist.
2. Carl Amdahl (1903-1984), an American politician and farmer from South Dakota.
3. Nils Amdahl (1864-1945), a Norwegian-American author and Lutheran minister.
4. Rolf Amdahl (1936-2014), a Norwegian politician and government minister.
5. Torgeir Amdahl (1926-2018), a Norwegian businessman and philanthropist.

The Amdahl surname, with its roots in Scandinavia and its association with valleys or dales, has left its mark on history through the accomplishments of its bearers in various fields, from agriculture and politics to computer science and entrepreneurship.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Amdahl

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

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 Amdahl 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 Amdahl 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 Amdahl was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!