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

Etter, 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 Etter surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Etter in America

Etter is the 6701st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Etter surname appeared 5,039 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 Etter.

We can also compare 2010 data for Etter 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 Etter

The surname Etter is of German origin, derived from the Old German word "etto," meaning "prosperous" or "wealthy." It is believed to have originated in the region of Bavaria in southern Germany during the 12th century.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Etter can be found in the "Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae," a collection of medieval documents from the region of Saxony, dating back to the year 1202. The document mentions a certain "Henricus Etter" as a landholder in the town of Meissen.

The name Etter also appears in several other historical records from the 13th and 14th centuries, including the "Chronicon Sampetrinum," a chronicle of the city of Erfurt, where an individual named "Konrad Etter" is mentioned as a prominent citizen in the year 1312.

In the 15th century, the name Etter gained prominence with the birth of Johannes Etter (1420-1478), a German mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of trigonometry. His work, "Opusculum Triangulis," published in 1472, is considered one of the earliest works on trigonometry in Europe.

Another notable figure with the surname Etter was Hans Etter (1508-1573), a Swiss Reformer and theologian who played a crucial role in the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland. He was a close associate of Huldrych Zwingli and served as the pastor of the church in Zurich.

In the 17th century, Johann Jakob Etter (1632-1708) was a renowned Swiss physician and botanist. He is best known for his work "Hortus Eystettensis," a comprehensive catalog of the plants cultivated in the gardens of Eichstätt, a city in Bavaria.

Over the centuries, the name Etter has also been associated with various place names, such as Etterbeuren and Etterzhausen, both located in Bavaria, Germany. These places likely derived their names from early settlers bearing the surname Etter.

While the name Etter is most commonly found in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, it has also spread to other parts of the world through migration and immigration, particularly to the United States and Canada.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Etter

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

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

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

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