Boehme last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Boehme

A German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname derived from the Czech word "Čech," meaning a Bohemian or Czech person.

Boehme, 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 Boehme surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Boehme in America

Boehme is the 13109th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Boehme surname appeared 2,338 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 Boehme.

We can also compare 2010 data for Boehme 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.

20102000Change (%)
Rank13109125334.49%
Count2,3382,2683.04%
Proportion per 100k0.790.84-6.13%

The history of the last name Boehme

The surname Boehme has its origins in Germany, dating back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the German word "Böhme," which means "Bohemian" or a person from the region of Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic.

In the 13th century, the name was commonly spelled as "Behme" or "Behem," referring to individuals who had migrated from Bohemia to other parts of Germany. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in various medieval documents and records from that period.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Johannes Boehme, a German Christian mystic and philosopher born in 1575 in the town of Alt Seidenberg, near Görlitz. He is considered a significant figure in the Christian mysticism movement and influenced many subsequent philosophers and writers.

Another notable individual with the surname Boehme was Jacob Boehme, a German philosopher and Christian mystic born in 1575 in Alt Seidenberg, Görlitz. He is renowned for his influential writings on mysticism, which had a profound impact on the development of Western philosophy and theology.

In the 16th century, the name Boehme was also associated with various place names in Germany, such as Böhmen (Bohemia) and Böhmisch (Bohemian). This connection further reinforced the name's association with the Bohemian region and its inhabitants.

One of the earliest known records of the name can be found in the Domesday Book, a monumental survey of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name "Beme" is listed as a landholder in the county of Berkshire, indicating the presence of individuals with this surname in England during the 11th century.

Over the centuries, various spellings of the name emerged, including Boehm, Böhm, Böhme, and Boehme, reflecting regional linguistic variations and changes in orthography. However, the core meaning and origin remained consistent, tracing back to the Bohemian region of present-day Czech Republic.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Boehme

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

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 Boehme was:

Race/EthnicityPercentageTotal Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only93.93%2,196
Non-Hispanic Black Only(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only1.03%24
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races1.33%31
Hispanic Origin3.29%77

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 Boehme has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

20102000Change (%)
White93.93%95.46%-1.62%
Black(S)%(S)%(S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander1.03%0.71%36.78%
American Indian and Alaskan Native(S)%(S)%(S)%
Two or More Races1.33%1.37%-2.96%
Hispanic3.29%1.94%51.63%

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

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

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