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

Arcadia, 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 Arcadia surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Arcadia in America

Arcadia is the 91221st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Arcadia surname appeared 202 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 Arcadia.

We can also compare 2010 data for Arcadia 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 Arcadia

The surname Arcadia originated in Greece, tracing its roots back to the classical period of ancient Greece. The name is derived from the region of Arcadia, a mountainous area in the Peloponnese peninsula of southern Greece, known for its rustic landscape and pastoral traditions.

Arcadia was a region celebrated in Greek mythology and poetry, often depicted as an idyllic, unspoiled wilderness where shepherds and nymphs lived in harmony with nature. The name itself is believed to come from the ancient Greek word "arkades," meaning "people of the bear," possibly referring to the region's association with the cult of the bear-goddess Artemis.

The earliest recorded instances of the surname Arcadia can be traced back to the Byzantine era, when it was used to identify individuals who hailed from the region of Arcadia. In the 12th century, a notable individual bearing the name was Theodoros Prodromos, a renowned Byzantine poet and satirist born in Constantinople around 1115.

During the Renaissance period, the name gained further prominence through the works of Italian poets and writers who idealized Arcadia as a pastoral utopia. One notable figure was Jacopo Sannazaro, an Italian poet born in Naples in 1458, whose work "Arcadia" helped popularize the concept of an idyllic, rustic paradise.

In the 17th century, Sir Philip Sidney, an English poet, scholar, and soldier born in 1554, wrote the influential prose romance "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia," which further cemented the association between the name and the idea of an idealized pastoral setting.

Another notable figure with the surname Arcadia was the Italian painter and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, born in Naples in 1598, who designed the famous Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, Rome, which features a sculpture representing the river Ganges personified as a man with his foot resting on a fragment depicting the Arcadian Mountain.

In the 19th century, the surname Arcadia continued to be associated with artistic and literary circles. One notable bearer was the English poet and critic John Addington Symonds, born in 1840, who wrote extensively on Renaissance art and literature, including works on the pastoral tradition in Italian poetry.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Arcadia

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

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

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

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