Folkerts last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Folkerts

A Germanic surname derived from the words "folk" (people) and "hert" (leader or master).

Folkerts, 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 Folkerts surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Folkerts in America

Folkerts is the 20116th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Folkerts surname appeared 1,328 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 Folkerts.

We can also compare 2010 data for Folkerts 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 20116 19232 4.49%
Count 1,328 1,305 1.75%
Proportion per 100k 0.45 0.48 -6.45%

The history of the last name Folkerts

The surname Folkerts has its origins in Germany, specifically in the northern regions of the country. It dates back to the late Middle Ages, around the 14th or 15th century. The name is derived from the Low German word "Folkert," which itself is a combination of two older Germanic words: "folk" meaning "people" and "hert" meaning "brave" or "strong."

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Folkerts can be found in the Stadtarchiv Lüneburg, a collection of records from the city of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. These records, dating back to the late 15th century, mention a certain Hinrich Folkerts, who was a prominent merchant and landowner in the area.

Another notable early bearer of the name was Dietrich Folkerts, a Lutheran theologian and reformer who lived in the 16th century. Born in Lübeck in 1529, Folkerts played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation movement in northern Germany.

In the 17th century, the Folkerts name can be found in various historical documents from the Frisian regions of present-day Germany and the Netherlands. One such document, a land registry from 1632, lists a Fokke Folkerts as a landowner in the village of Marsum, East Frisia.

The 18th century saw the rise of Johann Folkerts, a German mathematician and astronomer born in 1735 in Anrich, East Frisia. Folkerts made important contributions to the field of celestial mechanics and was a member of the prestigious Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Another notable figure with the surname Folkerts was Bernhard Folkerts, a 19th-century German painter and lithographer. Born in 1815 in Oldenburg, he was known for his landscape paintings and lithographic prints depicting scenes from his native region.

While the surname Folkerts is primarily associated with Germany and the Netherlands, it has also spread to other parts of the world through migration and immigration. However, its roots can be traced back to the northern German regions, where it originated as a descriptive surname reflecting the bravery and strength of its early bearers.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Folkerts

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

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 Folkerts was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 96.54% 1,282
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.38% 5
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.75% 10
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 0.90% 12
Hispanic Origin 1.43% 19

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 Folkerts has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 96.54% 97.24% -0.72%
Black 0.38% 0.54% -34.78%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.75% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 0.90% 1.00% -10.53%
Hispanic 1.43% 1.00% 35.39%

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

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

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"Folkerts last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/folkerts-surname-popularity/.

"Folkerts last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/folkerts-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 December, 2024

Folkerts last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/folkerts-surname-popularity/.

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