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

Boe, 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 Boe surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Boe in America

Boe is the 8556th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Boe surname appeared 3,850 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 Boe.

We can also compare 2010 data for Boe 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 Boe

The surname Boe is believed to have originated in Norway during the Viking age, between the 8th and 11th centuries. It is derived from the Old Norse word "boer," meaning "farmer" or "dweller." This suggests that the name was likely given to someone who lived or worked on a farm or in a rural area.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Boe can be found in the Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic manuscript that documents the settlement of Iceland in the 9th and 10th centuries. The manuscript mentions a man named Boe Thorstein, who is said to have settled in the region of Borgarfjörður in western Iceland around the year 900.

During the Middle Ages, the name Boe appears to have spread to other parts of Scandinavia, including Sweden and Denmark. In the 14th century, a Swedish man named Erik Boe is recorded as having served as a member of the royal guard under King Magnus IV.

In the 16th century, the name Boe can be found in the records of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands, suggesting that it may have been brought to the region by Scandinavian settlers or traders. One notable individual from this period is the Dutch artist Pieter Boe, who was born in Amsterdam in 1548 and is known for his landscape paintings.

The name Boe also made its way to England, where it can be found in various historical records from the 17th century onwards. In 1637, a man named John Boe is recorded as having been baptized in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields in London.

Other notable individuals with the surname Boe include the Norwegian explorer and writer Jens Boe, who was born in 1830 and is best known for his expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic regions. The Scottish philosopher and historian David Boe, born in 1795, was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and wrote extensively on the history and culture of Scotland.

In the 20th century, the American author and playwright Charles Boe, who was born in 1905, gained recognition for his works exploring themes of social justice and racial equality. Additionally, the Norwegian physicist and Nobel laureate Ivar Boe, born in 1904, made significant contributions to the field of nuclear physics and is remembered for his groundbreaking research on radioactivity and atomic structure.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Boe

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

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

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

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