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

Curie, 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 Curie surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Curie in America

Curie is the 88020th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Curie surname appeared 211 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Curie.

We can also compare 2010 data for Curie 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 Curie

The surname Curie originates from France and dates back to the 17th century. It is derived from the Old French word "curie," which means "parish" or "cure," referring to a priest's administrative district. The name was likely given to someone who worked or lived near a parish church.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Curie can be found in the parish records of Saint-Rémy, a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department of Burgundy, France. In the late 17th century, a family with the surname Curie was documented as living in this region.

The name Curie gained significant recognition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to the groundbreaking contributions of Marie Curie (1867-1934), a Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering work on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice, in Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911).

Another notable figure with the surname Curie was Pierre Curie (1859-1906), a French physicist and Marie Curie's husband. He was a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, and radioactivity, and he shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife and Henri Becquerel.

Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), the daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie, was a French chemist and physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for her work on artificial radioactivity. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.

Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900-1958), Irène Joliot-Curie's husband, was a French chemist and physicist who co-discovered artificial radioactivity with his wife. He was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, along with Irène.

Another notable bearer of the surname Curie was Ève Curie (1904-2007), the younger daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie. She was a writer, journalist, and pianist, and she authored a biography of her mother titled "Madame Curie" in 1937.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Curie

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

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

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

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