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

Demus, 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 Demus surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Demus in America

Demus is the 35764th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Demus surname appeared 628 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 Demus.

We can also compare 2010 data for Demus 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 Demus

The surname DEMUS is believed to have originated from the Demeter, the goddess of agriculture in Greek mythology. The name likely derives from the Ancient Greek word "dēmētēr," which means "mother earth" or "grain-giver." It is thought to have first emerged as a surname in the regions of Greece and the surrounding areas during the ancient and medieval periods.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname DEMUS can be found in the Byzantine chronicles, where a certain Georgios Demus is mentioned as a court official during the reign of Emperor Basil II in the late 10th century. This suggests that the name may have been adopted as a surname among the Greek nobility and bureaucratic circles of the time.

The DEMUS surname also appears in various manuscripts and records from the medieval period in regions that were part of the Byzantine Empire, such as parts of modern-day Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans. For example, a certain Theodoros Demus is mentioned in a 12th-century manuscript from the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai.

As the surname spread across Europe, it underwent various spelling variations, including Demous, Demouss, and Demouse. In the 16th century, a notable figure bearing the name was Petrus Demus, a Dutch scholar and humanist who lived between 1510 and 1567.

Another prominent individual with the DEMUS surname was Ignatius Demus, a German-born Catholic priest and theologian who lived from 1594 to 1652. He was known for his writings on Catholic doctrine and his involvement in the Counter-Reformation.

In the 19th century, Otto Demus, an Austrian art historian and expert on Byzantine and medieval art, was born in 1892. He made significant contributions to the study of Byzantine mosaics and worked as a curator at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Another notable person with the DEMUS surname was Konstantinos Demus, a Greek politician and diplomat who served as the Prime Minister of Greece for a brief period in 1945. He lived from 1891 to 1963 and played a role in the political turmoil of post-World War II Greece.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Demus

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

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

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

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