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

Friske, 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 Friske surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Friske in America

Friske is the 28176th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Friske surname appeared 849 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 Friske.

We can also compare 2010 data for Friske 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 Friske

The surname Friske has its origins in the Low German language, which was spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands during the Middle Ages. It is believed to have derived from the Low German word "frisk," meaning "fresh" or "lively." This suggests that the name may have originally been a descriptive nickname given to someone with a energetic or vivacious personality.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Friske can be traced back to the 14th century in various regions of northern Germany, including the areas around Bremen and Hamburg. During this period, surnames were becoming more commonly adopted, and many were derived from personal characteristics, occupations, or geographic locations.

One notable historical reference to the name Friske can be found in the records of the city of Lübeck, where a merchant named Hinrich Friske is mentioned in a trade document dated 1487. This suggests that the name was established in the Hanseatic League cities of northern Germany by the late 15th century.

In the 16th century, the name Friske appears in various spellings, such as "Friske," "Frisch," and "Frische," in documents from the regions of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. This indicates that the name had spread eastward along the Baltic coast.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with the surname Friske was Hans Friske, a farmer born in the village of Trittau, near Lübeck, in 1582. Another notable figure was Johann Friske, a Lutheran pastor who served in the town of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) in the mid-17th century.

Other notable individuals with the surname Friske include:

1. Friedrich Friske (1696-1761), a German composer and organist from Saxony.
2. Christoph Friske (1738-1815), a Prussian jurist and legal scholar from Pomerania.
3. Gustav Friske (1839-1919), a German philologist and professor at the University of Leipzig.
4. Karl Friske (1875-1943), a German architect known for his work in Berlin in the early 20th century.
5. Wilhelm Friske (1909-1995), a German engineer and inventor who developed an early form of magnetic tape recording technology.

The name Friske has also been associated with various place names in northern Germany, such as the village of Friskesche near Rostock, which may have derived its name from an early settler with the surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Friske

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

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

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

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