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

Arbeit, 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 Arbeit surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Arbeit in America

Arbeit is the 140157th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Arbeit surname appeared 119 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 Arbeit.

We can also compare 2010 data for Arbeit 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 Arbeit

The surname Arbeit is believed to have originated in Germany, with its earliest recorded instances dating back to the late 15th century. The name is derived from the German word "arbeit," which means "work" or "labor." It is likely that the name was initially given as a descriptive surname to individuals whose occupations or trades involved manual labor or physical exertion.

One of the earliest known bearers of the surname Arbeit was Hans Arbeit, a blacksmith who lived in the town of Nuremberg in the late 1400s. Records from that time period indicate that he was a respected craftsman and a member of the local guild of metalworkers.

In the 16th century, the surname Arbeit appears in various historical documents and records across various regions of Germany. For instance, in 1523, a farmer named Jobst Arbeit is mentioned in a land registry from the village of Biebertal, near the city of Gießen in central Germany.

The name Arbeit can also be found in some early records from the German state of Bavaria, such as the baptismal records of the town of Landshut, where a child named Anna Arbeit was born in 1587 to parents with the same surname.

As the centuries passed, the Arbeit surname spread to other parts of Europe and the world as Germans emigrated and settled in new lands. One notable bearer of the name was Johann Arbeit, a German-born artist and printmaker who lived in the late 18th century (1741-1813). His etchings and engravings depicting scenes from everyday life and rural landscapes were widely admired in his time.

Another individual of note was Katharina Arbeit (1793-1867), a German-born immigrant to the United States who settled in Pennsylvania in the early 19th century. She and her husband, also named Arbeit, were among the first German families to establish a farming community in what is now Berks County.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, several individuals with the surname Arbeit achieved prominence in various fields, such as Franz Arbeit (1835-1912), a German industrialist and inventor who patented a pioneering design for a mechanical typewriter, and Gustav Arbeit (1876-1943), a German-born architect who designed several notable buildings in New York City and Chicago.

While the surname Arbeit originated in Germany, it has since spread to other parts of the world, carried by individuals and families who have migrated over the centuries. The name continues to serve as a reminder of its historical roots, reflecting the hard work and labor that have been valued throughout generations.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Arbeit

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

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

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

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