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

Dugas, 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 Dugas surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Dugas in America

Dugas is the 5093rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Dugas surname appeared 6,871 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Dugas.

We can also compare 2010 data for Dugas 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 Dugas

The surname DUGAS originated in France and has been recorded since the late 16th century. It is derived from the Old French word "dogue" meaning "mastiff dog", likely referring to an ancestor with a tenacious or aggressive personality. The earliest known bearer was Jean Dugas, born around 1580 in La Rochelle, a Protestant stronghold on the Atlantic coast.

One of the earliest records of the name is found in the parish registers of Poitou in western France, where several families bearing the name resided during the 17th century. The name also appears in documents relating to the persecution of Huguenots, with some DUGAS families seeking refuge in England and the Netherlands after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.

In the 18th century, the name spread to other regions of France, including Normandy and Brittany. Notable bearers from this period include Jacques Dugas (1703-1779), a merchant and landowner in Bordeaux, and Marie-Madeleine Dugas (1718-1798), a Catholic nun who founded a convent school in Nantes.

The name began to appear in North America in the late 17th century, with some of the earliest settlers arriving in Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the La Rochelle region. One of the first recorded instances is that of Pierre Dugas, born in 1670 in Port Royal, Acadia. His descendants later migrated to Louisiana after the British expulsion of the Acadians in 1755.

Other notable bearers of the DUGAS name include René Dugas (1821-1894), a Canadian politician and businessman who served as a member of the Senate of Canada, and Alfred Dugas (1857-1939), a French painter and engraver known for his landscapes and portraits. In the United States, Charles Dugas (1870-1945) was a prominent architect from New Orleans who designed many landmark buildings across the American South.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Dugas

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

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

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

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