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

Buskirk, 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 Buskirk surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Buskirk in America

Buskirk is the 11264th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Buskirk surname appeared 2,807 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 Buskirk.

We can also compare 2010 data for Buskirk 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 Buskirk

The surname Buskirk originated in the Netherlands in the 16th century. It is derived from the Dutch words "bos" meaning woods and "kerk" meaning church, referring to a church located near or within a wooded area. The earliest recorded spelling of the name was Bossekerk, which eventually evolved into Buskirk.

One of the earliest known references to the surname Buskirk can be found in the records of the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam, where a family by the name of Bossekerk was documented in the late 1500s. This family likely hailed from a village or town near a wooded church, hence the origin of their surname.

As Dutch settlers began to migrate to the New World in the 17th century, the Buskirk surname made its way across the Atlantic. One of the first recorded instances of the name in America was in 1655, when Hendrick Jansen Buskirk arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City).

In the 18th century, several notable individuals bore the Buskirk surname. Abraham Buskirk (1714-1788) was a prominent landowner and businessman in colonial New York, while Jacob Buskirk (1730-1811) served as a captain in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

The 19th century saw the rise of a few more prominent Buskirks, including Henry Buskirk (1827-1903), a successful banker and businessman in Indiana, and Reverend Charles Buskirk (1841-1911), a Methodist minister and author from Pennsylvania.

One of the most well-known individuals with the Buskirk surname was Alden Buskirk (1855-1936), an American architect who designed numerous notable buildings in New York City, including the American Museum of Natural History and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument in Riverside Park.

While the Buskirk surname originated in the Netherlands, it has since spread to other parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, where various branches of the Buskirk family have established roots and made their mark throughout history.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Buskirk

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

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

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

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