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

Falke, 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 Falke surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Falke in America

Falke is the 27331st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Falke surname appeared 884 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 Falke.

We can also compare 2010 data for Falke 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 Falke

The surname Falke is of German origin, tracing its roots back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old High German word "falcho," meaning "falcon" or "hawk." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who worked with falcons or was associated with falconry, a popular sport among the nobility in medieval times.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Falke can be found in various historical documents from the 13th and 14th centuries, such as the Codex Diplomaticus Brandenburgensis, which mentions a certain "Theodoricus Falke" in 1291. The name was particularly prevalent in the regions of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In the 15th century, the name appears in the records of the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, where a man named Hans Falke served as a councilman in 1487. Around the same time, a family by the name of Falke was documented in the town of Lübeck, which was a prominent member of the Hanseatic League, a powerful economic alliance of merchant guilds and market towns in Northern Europe.

One notable figure in history bearing the surname Falke was Johann Falke (1598-1668), a German lawyer and diplomat who served as the envoy of the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg to the Imperial Diet in Regensburg. Another was Christian Falke (1714-1782), a German painter and engraver known for his religious and allegorical works.

In the 19th century, the name Falke was associated with several scholars and writers, including Jakob von Falke (1823-1901), a German art historian and author, and Gustav Falke (1853-1916), a German philologist and linguist who specialized in Slavic languages.

Another notable figure was Konrad Falke (1914-2010), a German World War II pilot and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, one of the highest military decorations in Nazi Germany.

Throughout its history, the surname Falke has also been associated with various place names, such as Falkenberg in Germany and Falkenhain in Poland, which may have influenced the spelling variations of the name over time.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Falke

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

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

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

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