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

Desaulniers, 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 Desaulniers surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Desaulniers in America

Desaulniers is the 37180th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Desaulniers surname appeared 600 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 Desaulniers.

We can also compare 2010 data for Desaulniers 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 Desaulniers

The surname Desaulniers originates from France and dates back to the early 17th century. It is derived from the Norman French phrase "des aulniers," which translates to "from the alders," referencing a location with an abundance of alder trees.

Historically, the Desaulniers surname is closely tied to the Normandy region of northern France, particularly the areas around Rouen and Caen. Some of the earliest recorded instances of this surname can be found in parish records and local archives from this region during the 1600s.

One notable early reference to the Desaulniers name appears in the 1689 census of the French colony of Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia and parts of New Brunswick, Canada). This record lists several families with the Desaulniers surname who had settled in the region as part of the French colonization efforts.

In the late 17th century, a branch of the Desaulniers family migrated to Quebec, Canada, where the name became well-established. One of the earliest documented individuals with this surname in Quebec was Jean-Baptiste Desaulniers, who was born in 1680 in Trois-Rivières.

Another notable figure in the history of the Desaulniers name was Isidore-Napoléon Desaulniers (1832-1925), a Quebec lawyer, journalist, and politician who served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons.

In the United States, the Desaulniers surname can be traced back to the 19th century, when French-Canadian immigrants began settling in New England states like Massachusetts and Connecticut. One prominent individual with this surname was Wilfred Desaulniers (1903-1982), a French-American composer and conductor from Massachusetts.

Other notable individuals with the Desaulniers surname include Marcel Desaulniers (1933-2022), a French-Canadian author and educator from Quebec, and Jean-Paul Desaulniers (1928-2022), a Canadian businessman and philanthropist from Manitoba.

Throughout its history, the Desaulniers surname has maintained its French roots and connections to the alder tree, reflecting the geographic origins and linguistic heritage of this distinctive family name.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Desaulniers

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

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

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

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