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

Damm, 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 Damm surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Damm in America

Damm is the 12312th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Damm surname appeared 2,525 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 Damm.

We can also compare 2010 data for Damm 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 Damm

The surname Damm originated in Germany, with records dating back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Old High German word "damm," meaning a dam or dike, and was likely an occupational name for someone who lived near or worked on a dam or dike.

The earliest known record of the name dates back to 1295 in the town of Augsburg, where a man named Henricus Damme was mentioned in a legal document. Another early reference is found in the 1398 tax records of the city of Nuremberg, which lists a certain Cuntz Damm.

In the 15th century, the name appears in various forms such as Damme, Dammen, and Damen, reflecting regional spelling variations. A notable figure from this period is Johannes Damm, a German scholar and humanist born in 1488 in Nuremberg.

The Damm surname can also be traced to the village of Damm in the Uckermark region of Brandenburg, which likely influenced the surname's spread in that area. In the 16th century, the name appears in church records from several towns in Brandenburg, including Prenzlau and Angermünde.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Damm surname in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century, when Johann Damm, a German immigrant, settled in Pennsylvania in 1749.

Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the Damm surname. These include:

1. Johann Christian Damm (1699-1776), a German theologian and orientalist.
2. Christian Tobias Damm (1699-1778), a German philologist and educator.
3. Hermann Damm (1812-1857), a German composer and music teacher.
4. August Damm (1836-1915), a German architect known for his work in Berlin.
5. Carl Damm (1868-1944), a German painter and printmaker associated with the Worpswede artists' colony.

While the Damm surname has its roots in Germany, it has since spread to other parts of Europe and beyond, carried by migration and settlement patterns over the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Damm

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

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

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

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