Buhr last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Buhr

A German toponymic surname denoting someone who lived by a marshy or swampy area.

Buhr, 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 Buhr surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Buhr in America

Buhr is the 12622nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Buhr surname appeared 2,452 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 Buhr.

We can also compare 2010 data for Buhr 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 12622 12638 -0.13%
Count 2,452 2,247 8.73%
Proportion per 100k 0.83 0.83 0.00%

The history of the last name Buhr

The surname BUHR is of German origin, derived from the word "bur" which means peasant or farmer. It first emerged in the late medieval period, around the 13th century, in the regions of northern Germany and the Low Countries.

The name likely originated as a descriptive name for someone who worked as a peasant or farmer, or possibly as a toponymic name for someone who lived near a particular farmstead or village. Early variations of the spelling include Bur, Bure, Buir, and Buhr.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name BUHR can be found in the 1489 Westphalian tax records, where a certain Johannes Buhr is listed as a landowner in the town of Soest. Another early reference is in the 1528 parish records of Lübeck, where a Hinrich Buhr is mentioned.

In the 16th century, the name BUHR appears in the annals of the city of Hamburg, where a prominent merchant and alderman named Barthold Buhr is recorded as having lived from 1542 to 1612. He was a influential figure in the city's trade guilds and played a role in the Reformation movement.

Another notable bearer of the name was Johann Buhr, a German astronomer and mathematician who lived from 1610 to 1667. He made significant contributions to the development of the telescope and the study of celestial bodies.

In the 18th century, a well-known figure with the surname BUHR was Johann Gottlieb Buhr, a German composer and organist who lived from 1763 to 1829. He composed numerous works for the organ and church music.

The name BUHR can also be found in various place names throughout Germany and the Netherlands, such as Buhrdorf, Buhrau, and Buhrfelde, which likely derived from the same linguistic root.

As the name spread across Europe in the modern era, it has been adopted and adapted in various languages, leading to alternative spellings like Bur, Burr, and Buhre. However, the core meaning and historical significance of the name BUHR as a marker of agrarian roots in northern Germany and the Low Countries remain intact.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Buhr

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

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 Buhr was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.39% 2,339
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.49% 12
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.98% 24
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.29% 7
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 0.82% 20
Hispanic Origin 2.04% 50

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

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.39% 96.40% -1.05%
Black 0.49% 0.27% 57.89%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.98% 0.80% 20.22%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.29% 0.22% 27.45%
Two or More Races 0.82% 0.62% 27.78%
Hispanic 2.04% 1.69% 18.77%

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

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

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"Buhr last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/buhr-surname-popularity/.

"Buhr last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/buhr-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

Buhr last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/buhr-surname-popularity/.

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