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

Bobek, 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 Bobek surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Bobek in America

Bobek is the 37591st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Bobek surname appeared 592 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 Bobek.

We can also compare 2010 data for Bobek 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 Bobek

The surname Bobek originates from the Czech Republic, where it can be traced back to the 12th century. It is believed to be derived from the Czech word "bobr," meaning "beaver." This suggests that the name may have originally been an occupational surname referring to someone who hunted or worked with beavers, or perhaps lived near a beaver dam or colony.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bobek can be found in a 14th-century document from the town of Litomerice, which mentions a man named Jan Bobek. The name also appears in various other historical records and manuscripts from medieval Bohemia and surrounding regions.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Bobek surname was particularly prevalent in the areas around Pilsen and Plzen in western Bohemia. This region was home to several notable individuals bearing the name, including the musician and composer Vaclav Bobek (1535-1592), whose works were performed at the court of Emperor Rudolf II.

In the 18th century, the name Bobek began to spread more widely throughout the Czech lands and neighboring regions. One notable figure from this time was Jan Bobek (1743-1818), a writer and philosopher who authored several influential works on ethics and moral philosophy.

As the Czech diaspora expanded in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Bobek surname also became more widely distributed across Europe and beyond. Josef Bobek (1822-1892) was a Czech-born painter who gained recognition for his landscapes and portraits in Vienna and Munich. Another notable individual was Jaroslav Bobek (1877-1942), a Czech politician and journalist who was active in the early years of the First Czechoslovak Republic.

In more recent times, the name Bobek has been carried by individuals such as the Czech-Canadian author and translator Josef Skvorecky (1924-2012), whose full name was Josef Bobek Skvorecky, and the Czech-American ice hockey player Radim Bobek (born 1976), who played in the NHL for several teams in the 1990s and 2000s.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Bobek

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

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

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

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