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

Emmer, 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 Emmer surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Emmer in America

Emmer is the 20172nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Emmer surname appeared 1,322 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 Emmer.

We can also compare 2010 data for Emmer 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 Emmer

The surname Emmer is of German origin, derived from the Middle High German word "emmer," which referred to a type of wheat or grain crop. This name likely originated as a descriptive surname for someone involved in the cultivation or processing of emmer wheat, such as a farmer or miller.

The earliest known records of the Emmer surname date back to the late 13th century in the southern German regions of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The name appears in various historical documents and records from this period, including local tax rolls and land registries.

In the 14th century, the name Emmer can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Salemitanus, a collection of documents relating to the Benedictine monastery of Salem in present-day Baden-Württemberg. This suggests that individuals bearing this surname may have had connections to the monastery or lived in the surrounding areas.

One notable early bearer of the Emmer surname was Johannes Emmer, a German philosopher and theologian born in Nuremberg around 1470. He studied at the University of Ingolstadt and later taught at the University of Tübingen, where he published several works on logic and metaphysics.

During the 16th century, the Emmer surname spread to other parts of Germany, including the Rhineland and Saxony. In the town of Goslar in Lower Saxony, records show an Emmer family residing there in the mid-1500s, with members working as merchants and tradesmen.

Another notable individual with the Emmer surname was Christoph Emmer, a German cartographer and engraver born in Nuremberg in 1561. He is known for his intricate maps of various German cities and regions, including a detailed map of the Duchy of Bavaria published in 1612.

In the 17th century, the Emmer name appears in records from the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. One example is Johann Jakob Emmer, a Lutheran pastor born in Heidelberg in 1632, who served as a minister in several towns throughout the Palatinate.

As the Emmer surname spread across Germany over the centuries, it also began to appear in various regional dialects and spellings, such as Emer, Emmerich, and Emmert. However, the original form of Emmer remained prevalent, particularly in the southern German states.

While the Emmer surname is relatively uncommon today, it continues to be found primarily in Germany, as well as in areas with German immigrant communities around the world. Notable bearers of this surname in more recent times include the German writer and philosopher Hans Emmer (1899-1970) and the Swiss-German painter and sculptor Karl Emmer (1891-1975).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Emmer

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

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

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