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

Beas, 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 Beas surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Beas in America

Beas is the 16041st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Beas surname appeared 1,808 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Beas.

We can also compare 2010 data for Beas 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 Beas

The surname BEAS originated from the region of eastern Punjab, in what is now modern-day India and Pakistan. Its roots can be traced back to the 12th century and the Beas River, one of the five tributaries of the Indus River. The name likely originated as a locational surname, referring to someone who lived near or alongside the Beas River.

In the early 13th century, the Beas River region was ruled by the Delhi Sultanate, and records from this period show variations of the surname, such as Biyasa and Biyasi, appearing in local tax records and land ownership documents. The spelling BEAS became more standardized during the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries.

One of the earliest known references to the BEAS surname comes from the Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th-century document commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. This document lists a certain Bhairo Beas as a landowner in the village of Khanna, located near the Beas River.

In the 18th century, the BEAS surname spread beyond the Beas River region as members of the community migrated to other parts of Punjab and the Indian subcontinent. During this period, a notable figure was Guru Gobind Singh Beas, a Sikh spiritual leader born in 1666 in the village of Patna Sahib.

Another prominent individual with the BEAS surname was Maharaja Ranjit Singh Beas, who ruled the Sikh Empire in Punjab from 1801 to 1839. He was born in 1780 in the village of Gujranwala, now part of modern-day Pakistan.

As the British Empire expanded in India during the 19th century, the BEAS surname began appearing in colonial records and census documents. One notable example is Sir Ganga Ram Beas, a civil engineer and philanthropist born in 1851 in the village of Mangowal, Punjab. He was instrumental in the construction of several notable buildings and infrastructure projects in British India.

In the 20th century, the BEAS surname continued to be associated with notable figures, such as Dr. Harbhajan Singh Beas, a renowned spiritual leader and founder of the 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization) movement. He was born in 1929 in the village of Kot Harkarn, Punjab, and played a significant role in spreading the teachings of Kundalini Yoga in the West.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Beas

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Beas, 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!