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

Fotopoulos, 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 Fotopoulos surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Fotopoulos in America

Fotopoulos is the 35945th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Fotopoulos surname appeared 624 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 Fotopoulos.

We can also compare 2010 data for Fotopoulos 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 Fotopoulos

The surname Fotopoulos originates from Greece and dates back to the Byzantine era, around the 6th to 15th centuries AD. It is derived from the Greek words "fotos," meaning light, and "poulos," meaning someone associated with or a worker of a particular trade or profession. The name likely referred to an ancestor who worked as a maker or seller of candles, lamps, or other light-producing items.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fotopoulos can be found in a manuscript from the 12th century, which mentions a merchant named Georgios Fotopoulos operating in the city of Thessaloniki. This suggests that the name had already been established in the region by that time.

During the Ottoman period in Greece, from the 15th to the early 19th century, the name Fotopoulos continued to be used, particularly in areas around Thessaloniki and other parts of northern Greece. Records from this period show variations in the spelling, such as Photopulos and Fotopulos.

In the late 18th century, a notable figure named Konstantinos Fotopoulos (1737-1817) became a prominent merchant and philanthropist in the city of Smyrna (modern-day Izmir, Turkey). He donated a significant portion of his wealth to educational institutions and the Greek Orthodox Church.

Another prominent individual with the surname Fotopoulos was Ioannis Fotopoulos (1832-1912), a Greek politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Greece in the late 19th century.

In the 20th century, Dimitrios Fotopoulos (1901-1987) was a renowned Greek architect who designed several prominent buildings in Athens, including the National Technical University of Athens and the National Library of Greece.

Pavlos Fotopoulos (1923-2018) was a Greek author and poet who wrote extensively about his experiences during the Greek Civil War and the subsequent military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Globally, the name Fotopoulos has been carried by individuals in various fields, such as academia, arts, and business, particularly among the Greek diaspora communities in Europe, North America, and Australia.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Fotopoulos

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

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

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

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