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

Ashkenazi, 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 Ashkenazi surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Ashkenazi in America

Ashkenazi is the 40204th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Ashkenazi surname appeared 545 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 Ashkenazi.

We can also compare 2010 data for Ashkenazi 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 Ashkenazi

The surname Ashkenazi has its roots in the Hebrew language and is derived from the Biblical term "Ashkenaz," which refers to a region in ancient Persia. This term was later used to describe the Jewish communities that settled in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in areas such as Germany, Poland, and Russia.

Historically, the surname Ashkenazi emerged in the Middle Ages as a way to distinguish the Jewish communities of Western and Central Europe from those of the Iberian Peninsula (known as Sephardim) and other regions. It became a way for Jews to identify their cultural and geographic origins within the broader Jewish diaspora.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Ashkenazi can be found in the writings of the 12th-century Jewish scholar, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, also known as Rashi. He was a renowned Torah commentator and used the term "Ashkenazi" to refer to the Jewish communities of France and Germany, where he lived.

In the 13th century, another prominent figure bearing the surname Ashkenazi was Rabbi Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg, a leading scholar and Talmudic authority who lived in Germany. He was known as the "Rashbam" and made significant contributions to the study of Jewish law and ethics.

During the 14th century, the Ashkenazi surname gained further prominence with the rise of the Hasidic movement, a Jewish spiritual revival that originated in Eastern Europe. One of the movement's founders, Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, also known as the Baal Shem Tov, was born in the early 18th century to a family with the Ashkenazi surname.

In the 19th century, the Ashkenazi surname was associated with several notable figures, including the German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who played a pivotal role in the Jewish Enlightenment movement and advocated for the integration of Jews into broader European society.

Another prominent Ashkenazi from this period was the Yiddish writer and humorist Sholem Aleichem, whose real name was Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich. He was born in Ukraine in 1859 and is widely regarded as the founding father of modern Yiddish literature, capturing the essence of Ashkenazi Jewish life in his writings.

Throughout history, the Ashkenazi surname has been associated with various place names and locations where Jewish communities thrived. For example, the term "Ashkenaz" was sometimes used to refer to the German lands, while the term "Ashkenazim" was applied to the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe more broadly.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Ashkenazi

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

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

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

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