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

Boll, 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 Boll surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Boll in America

Boll is the 10993rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Boll surname appeared 2,893 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 Boll.

We can also compare 2010 data for Boll 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 Boll

The surname Boll originated in Germany during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old German word "bolle," which means a round loaf of bread or a small hill. This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near a round hill or worked as a baker.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Boll can be traced back to the 13th century in various regions of Germany, including Bavaria, Saxony, and the Rhineland. In some areas, the name was also spelled as "Bole" or "Bolle."

One of the earliest documented references to the name Boll can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, a collection of medieval charters and documents from Saxony, where a certain "Henricus Boll" is mentioned in a record dated 1286.

In the 14th century, the name appeared in the town records of Nuremberg, where a "Hans Boll" is listed as a resident in 1357. This suggests that the name was well-established in urban centers of Germany by this time.

A notable historical figure with the surname Boll was Johann Christian Boll (1776-1848), a German botanist and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of plant life in the Rhineland region.

Another prominent individual was the German writer and Nobel Prize laureate, Heinrich Boll (1917-1985), whose works explored the moral and ethical dilemmas of post-World War II Germany.

In the 16th century, the name Boll can be found in various historical records from the city of Cologne, where it was sometimes associated with the occupation of baking or milling.

Other notable individuals with the surname Boll include Johann Boll (1590-1669), a German composer and organist from Braunschweig, and Franz Boll (1867-1924), a German classical philologist and scholar of ancient Greek literature.

The name Boll has also been linked to several place names in Germany, such as Bollberg (meaning "Boll's hill") and Bollschweil (meaning "Boll's village"), further reinforcing its geographical origins.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Boll

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

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

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

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