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

Berndt, 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 Berndt surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Berndt in America

Berndt is the 5700th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Berndt surname appeared 6,081 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Berndt.

We can also compare 2010 data for Berndt 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 Berndt

The surname Berndt originated in Germany and can be traced back to the early 14th century. It is a patronymic name derived from the Germanic personal name Bernhard, which means "brave bear." The name Berndt is a variation of the more common spelling Bernhard and was likely introduced as a shortened form of the original name.

In medieval Germany, surnames were often adopted to distinguish individuals from others with the same given name. The name Berndt was particularly prevalent in the northern regions of Germany, such as Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Berndt can be found in the Bremisches Urkundenbuch, a collection of historical documents from the city of Bremen, dated 1350. This document mentions a certain "Henricus Berndes," suggesting that the name was already in use by that time.

The Berndt name also appears in various other historical records, including the Sachsenspiegel, a medieval legal code from the 13th century, and the Stadtbücher, which were city registers kept in various German towns.

Notable individuals with the surname Berndt throughout history include:

1. Johannes Berndt (1592-1655), a German mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of optics.
2. Ernst Wilhelm Berndt (1638-1715), a German composer and organist who served as the Kapellmeister at the court of Saxony-Weimar.
3. Paul Berndt (1808-1877), a German landscape painter known for his depictions of the Harz Mountains region.
4. Gustav Berndt (1863-1940), a German archaeologist who conducted extensive excavations in the Middle East, including at the site of Babylon.
5. Hermann Berndt (1876-1935), a German engineer and inventor who developed the first successful diesel locomotive.

The name Berndt has also been associated with various place names in Germany, such as Berndtshagen, a village in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Berndtsmühle, a mill located near the city of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony. These place names likely originated from individuals bearing the surname Berndt who were associated with those locations.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Berndt

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

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

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

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