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

DeVos, 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 DeVos surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of DeVos in America

DeVos is the 13752nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The DeVos surname appeared 2,200 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 DeVos.

We can also compare 2010 data for DeVos 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 DeVos

The surname DEVOS is of Dutch origin, originating from the medieval Dutch provinces in the Low Countries during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Dutch words "de" meaning "the" and "vos" meaning "fox." The name likely referred to someone who lived near a fox's den or had some association with foxes.

DEVOS is a variant spelling of the more common Dutch surname "de Vos." It first appeared in the historical records of the Netherlands and Belgium in the 13th and 14th centuries. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in municipal records and tax rolls from cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp.

One of the earliest known bearers of the DEVOS surname was Jan de Vos, a merchant from Ghent, Belgium, who was mentioned in a business contract dated 1387. Another early record is of a Pieter de Vos, a farmer from the village of Dordrecht, Netherlands, who was listed in a land deed from 1412.

The DEVOS name gained prominence in the 16th and 17th centuries during the Dutch Golden Age. Cornelis de Vos (1584-1651) was a renowned Flemish Baroque painter from Antwerp, known for his religious and historical works. Abraham de Vos (1591-1649) was a successful merchant and shipowner from Amsterdam, who financed several voyages of the Dutch East India Company.

In the 18th century, Jacobus de Vos (1717-1789) was a respected jurist and legal scholar from Leiden, who served as a judge in the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. Adriaan de Vos (1744-1813) was a Dutch military officer and a participant in the Dutch Patriot Revolution against the Stadtholder William V.

During the 19th century, the DEVOS surname spread to other parts of Europe and the Americas due to Dutch emigration. One notable bearer was Hendrik de Vos (1831-1910), a Dutch-American entrepreneur who established a successful brewing company in Chicago, Illinois.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name DeVos

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

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

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