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

Copenhaver, 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 Copenhaver surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Copenhaver in America

Copenhaver is the 8046th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Copenhaver surname appeared 4,113 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 Copenhaver.

We can also compare 2010 data for Copenhaver 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 Copenhaver

The surname Copenhaver is believed to have originated in Germany, specifically in the region of Westphalia. It is thought to have derived from the Middle Low German words "kopen," meaning "to buy," and "haver," meaning "oats." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who traded or dealt in oats.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Westphalian town of Coesfeld, where a Hinrich Copenhaver was mentioned in records dating back to 1492. The name also appeared in various forms, such as Kopenhaver and Koppenhafer, in other parts of Westphalia during the 16th and 17th centuries.

In the late 17th century, the name began to appear in records of German immigrants to Pennsylvania and other parts of the American colonies. One notable early bearer of the name was Johann Heinrich Copenhaver, who was born in 1668 in the town of Schöllenbach, Westphalia, and later emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1737.

Another early American bearer of the name was Jacob Copenhaver, who was born in 1720 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He served as a private in the Pennsylvania militia during the Revolutionary War.

In the 19th century, the name Copenhaver became more widely dispersed across the United States. One prominent individual with this surname was John Copenhaver (1834-1901), a Union Army officer during the American Civil War who later served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio.

Another notable bearer of the name was Charles Copenhaver (1842-1924), a lawyer and politician from West Virginia who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1893 to 1899.

As the name spread across different regions, it also underwent various spelling variations, such as Coppenhaver, Copenhaver, and Kopenhaver, reflecting the influences of local dialects and pronunciation.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Copenhaver

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!