Eilts last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Eilts

A locational surname possibly derived from a place name in Germany.

Eilts, 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 Eilts surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Eilts in America

Eilts is the 44872nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Eilts surname appeared 478 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 Eilts.

We can also compare 2010 data for Eilts 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 44872 40761 9.60%
Count 478 505 -5.49%
Proportion per 100k 0.16 0.19 -17.14%

The history of the last name Eilts

The surname Eilts is believed to have originated in Germany, specifically in the northern regions near the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts. It is thought to have derived from the Old German word "eilt," which means "elder" or "old." This suggests that the name may have been initially given as a descriptive surname to an elder or elderly person.

The earliest known recorded instances of the Eilts surname can be traced back to the 13th century in various historical documents and records from the region. One of the earliest documented mentions is found in the Bremisches Urkundenbuch, a collection of historical records from the city of Bremen, where a person named Hinricus Eilts is listed in 1289.

During the Middle Ages, the name Eilts was predominantly found in the coastal areas of northern Germany, particularly in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is believed that the name may have also been influenced by the place name "Eiltzen," a village in the district of Uelzen, Lower Saxony.

One notable historical figure bearing the Eilts surname was Johann Eilts (1615-1685), a German theologian and author who served as a pastor in the city of Bremen. Another prominent individual was Hinrich Eilts (1790-1855), a German-American farmer and pioneer who immigrated to the United States in the early 19th century and settled in Missouri.

In the Netherlands, the surname Eilts has been recorded as early as the 16th century, likely due to the close proximity and historical ties between the northern German regions and the Netherlands. One example is Cornelis Eilts, a Dutch sailor who served on the ship "Gelderland" in the early 1600s.

Other notable individuals with the Eilts surname include Friedrich Eilts (1822-1892), a German-American farmer and businessman who founded the town of Eilts, Texas, and Gerhard Eilts (1901-1989), a German-American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1965 to 1970.

While the Eilts surname is relatively uncommon compared to other German surnames, it has a rich historical background and can be traced back to the coastal regions of northern Germany, where it originated as a descriptive surname related to age or elderliness.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Eilts

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

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 Eilts was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.19% 455
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 1.67% 8
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races (S)% (S)
Hispanic Origin 1.88% 9

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 Eilts has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.19% 95.25% -0.06%
Black (S)% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.67% 1.58% 5.54%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races (S)% 0.99% (S)%
Hispanic 1.88% 1.39% 29.97%

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

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

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"Eilts last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/eilts-surname-popularity/.

"Eilts last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/eilts-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 December, 2024

Eilts last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/eilts-surname-popularity/.

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