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

Fels, 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 Fels surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Fels in America

Fels is the 31150th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Fels surname appeared 745 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 Fels.

We can also compare 2010 data for Fels 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 Fels

The surname FELS originated in Germany, with its earliest recorded instances dating back to the 13th century. It is believed to have derived from the Middle High German word "vels," which means "rock" or "cliff." This suggests that the name may have initially been used to identify someone who lived near a rocky area or a cliff.

During the Middle Ages, many German surnames were derived from geographic features, occupations, or personal characteristics. The name FELS likely emerged as a descriptive surname, referring to the rocky terrain or landscape where the family resided or originated from.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of medieval documents from Saxony, where a person named Henricus Fels is mentioned in a charter dated 1298.

In the 15th century, the name appeared in various municipal records and chronicles across different regions of Germany. For example, a certain Hans Fels was mentioned in the city records of Nuremberg in 1457, suggesting that the name had spread to urban areas during that time period.

Notable individuals who bore the surname FELS include Johannes Fels, a German theologian and reformer who lived from 1486 to 1558. He was a follower of Martin Luther and played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation.

Another prominent figure was Wilhelm Fels, a German artist and sculptor who lived from 1677 to 1749. He is known for his baroque-style sculptures and worked on several churches and palaces in southern Germany.

In the 19th century, Karl Fels was a German journalist and politician who lived from 1846 to 1918. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party and actively campaigned for workers' rights and social reforms.

Adalbert Fels, born in 1861 and died in 1944, was a German-American businessman and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the soap and detergent industry and later established the Fels Planetarium in Philadelphia, which became one of the first major public planetariums in the United States.

The name FELS can also be found in various place names across Germany, such as Felsberg, a town in Hesse, and Felsenmeer, a famous rock formation in the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. These place names likely derived from the same root word as the surname, further reinforcing its connection to rocky or mountainous areas.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Fels

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

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

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

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