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

Frischknecht, 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 Frischknecht surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Frischknecht in America

Frischknecht is the 80131st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Frischknecht surname appeared 237 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 Frischknecht.

We can also compare 2010 data for Frischknecht 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 Frischknecht

The surname Frischknecht originated in the German-speaking regions of central Europe, particularly in parts of modern-day Germany and Switzerland. It first appeared during the late medieval period, around the 13th or 14th century. The name derives from the Middle High German words "frisch" meaning "fresh" or "new" and "knecht" meaning "servant" or "farmhand."

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Frischknecht name can be found in the Deutsches Familiennamen-Lexikon, a comprehensive dictionary of German surnames, which cites a reference to a Frischknecht from the town of Erding, near Munich, in 1350. This suggests that the name may have originated in Bavaria or the surrounding regions.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Frischknecht name appears in various historical documents and records across southern Germany and parts of Switzerland. For example, a Johannes Frischknecht is mentioned in the town records of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1487.

Notable individuals with the surname Frischknecht include Johann Frischknecht, a German theologian and writer who lived from 1528 to 1590. Another prominent figure was Johann Jakob Frischknecht, a Swiss politician and military officer who served as the mayor of Bern in the early 18th century (1673-1738).

In the 19th century, a Frischknecht family owned a large farm in the village of Hellikon, near Winterthur, in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. This farm, known as the Frischknecht-Gut or Frischknecht Estate, was a significant landholding in the region.

Another notable bearer of the name was the Swiss artist and illustrator Max Frischknecht (1876-1945), whose works captured landscapes and scenes from rural Switzerland in the early 20th century.

The Frischknecht surname has also been associated with place names and locations in Switzerland and southern Germany, such as Frischknecht-Tal (Frischknecht Valley) in the canton of Glarus, and the village of Frischknechten in the Black Forest region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Frischknecht

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

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

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

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