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

Boysen, 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 Boysen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Boysen in America

Boysen is the 14579th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Boysen surname appeared 2,043 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 Boysen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Boysen 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 Boysen

The surname BOYSEN originated in Germany during the Middle Ages. It is a patronymic name, derived from the personal name Boje, which was a short form of the Old German name Bodegar or Bodger. This name was composed of the elements "bodu" meaning "messenger" and "ger" meaning "spear."

The earliest recorded instances of the name BOYSEN can be found in medieval documents from northern Germany, particularly in the regions of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. In these areas, the name was often spelled as Boisen or Boysen, reflecting regional variations in pronunciation and spelling conventions.

One of the earliest known records of the name BOYSEN dates back to the 13th century, when a man named Henricus Boisen was mentioned in a legal document from the town of Lübeck in 1248. Another notable early reference is found in the Lübecker Reichsmatrikel, a register of citizens from Lübeck, where a Hinrich Boysen was recorded in 1347.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name BOYSEN became more widespread across northern Germany and parts of Denmark. Some notable individuals bearing this surname include Hans Boysen (1542-1612), a German theologian and reformer from Schleswig-Holstein, and Jörgen Boysen (1585-1650), a Danish sea captain and merchant who established trading routes to India and the Dutch East Indies.

In the 18th century, the BOYSEN name appeared in various historical records from Mecklenburg, including the birth of Johann Boysen in 1732, a farmer and landowner from the village of Graal-Müritz. Another notable figure was Claus Boysen (1751-1828), a German writer and poet who was born in Schleswig-Holstein and is known for his works in the Low German dialect.

The 19th century saw the BOYSEN name spread further across Germany and into other parts of Europe, as well as to the Americas and other parts of the world through emigration. One prominent individual was Carl Boysen (1827-1898), a Danish painter and author who was born in Copenhagen and is known for his depictions of scenes from Danish rural life.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Boysen

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

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

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

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