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

Degenhardt, 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 Degenhardt surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Degenhardt in America

Degenhardt is the 20116th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Degenhardt surname appeared 1,328 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 Degenhardt.

We can also compare 2010 data for Degenhardt 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 Degenhardt

The surname DEGENHARDT originated in Germany, with records dating back to the 13th century. It is a locational name derived from the village of Degenhardt or Degenhart, which translates to "brave people" or "courageous people" in Old German.

The name is believed to have first appeared in the region of Franconia, in the northern part of modern-day Bavaria. Early variations of the spelling include Degenhard, Degenhart, and Degenhart. The name was also found in other areas of Germany, such as Saxony and Thuringia.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name DEGENHARDT is in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of medieval documents from Saxony, where a certain Degenhard von Buren is mentioned in a charter dated 1283. Another early reference is in the Altenburg Annals, a chronicle of the town of Altenburg in Thuringia, which mentions a Degenhart von Gerstenberg in 1302.

In the 15th century, a notable figure with the surname DEGENHARDT was Hans Degenhardt, a German painter and engraver who was active in Nuremberg around 1470. His works included religious paintings and woodcuts.

During the 16th century, a family of DEGENHARDT nobles resided in the town of Weimar, in present-day Thuringia. One member of this family, Johann Degenhardt (1518-1587), was a prominent Lutheran theologian and reformer who served as a court preacher and superintendent in Weimar.

In the 17th century, Matthias Degenhardt (1629-1696) was a German composer and organist from Nuremberg. He composed several collections of sacred and secular music, including motets and concertos.

Another notable figure was Johann Degenhardt (1835-1912), a German-American farmer and businessman who founded the town of Degenhardt, Illinois, in the late 19th century. He was born in Saxony and immigrated to the United States in 1854.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Degenhardt

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Degenhardt, 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!