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

Esch, 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 Esch surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Esch in America

Esch is the 10145th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Esch surname appeared 3,179 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 Esch.

We can also compare 2010 data for Esch 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 Esch

The surname Esch originated in Germany and the Low Countries during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old German word "ask" or "esk," meaning ash tree, suggesting that the name's earliest bearers may have lived near a prominent ash tree or grove of ash trees.

One of the earliest known records of the name Esch dates back to the 13th century, when a Heinrich von Esch was mentioned in a document from the city of Cologne in 1287. The name was also found in various medieval manuscripts and charters from regions such as the Rhineland and the Low Countries.

The Esch surname is believed to have first emerged as a toponymic name, referring to individuals who lived in or near a place called Esch. Several villages and towns in Germany and the Netherlands bear this name, including Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg and Esch in the Dutch province of North Brabant.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the surname Esch began to spread more widely across Europe as people migrated and established new settlements. One notable figure from this period was Johann Jakob Esch, a German theologian and philosopher born in 1585 in Nuremberg.

In the 18th century, the name Esch appeared in various historical records, including the birth and death registers of several German principalities. Johann Philipp Esch, a German painter born in 1746 in Frankfurt am Main, was a prominent artist of the Baroque period.

The 19th century saw the emergence of several influential figures bearing the surname Esch. August Esch, born in 1804 in Darmstadt, was a German politician and lawyer who served as the Minister of Justice for the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Another notable individual was Richard Esch, a German businessman and industrialist born in 1837 in Düsseldorf, who played a significant role in the development of the steel industry in the Ruhr region.

As the Esch name spread across Europe and beyond, it also gained recognition in other fields. In the 20th century, one of the most prominent bearers of the surname was the Dutch mathematician and computer scientist Nico Esch, who made significant contributions to the field of topology and was born in 1931 in Amsterdam.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Esch

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

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

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