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

Fuchs, 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 Fuchs surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Fuchs in America

Fuchs is the 2784th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Fuchs surname appeared 12,958 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Fuchs.

We can also compare 2010 data for Fuchs 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 Fuchs

The surname Fuchs is of German origin, derived from the Old High German word 'fuhs' meaning 'fox'. It was originally an occupational name for a hunter or fur trader, or a nickname referring to someone with reddish-brown hair or a cunning personality like a fox.

The name can be traced back to the 12th century, with records showing variations such as Fuhse, Fuchse, and Vuchse. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Henricus Fuhse, mentioned in the Codex Traditionum Westfalicarum, a collection of medieval manuscripts from Westphalia, Germany, around 1200 AD.

In the 13th century, the name appeared in the Codex Diplomaticus Brandenburgensis, a compilation of documents from the Margraviate of Brandenburg. A certain Thidericus Vuchse was documented in this record from 1265.

The Fuchs surname is also linked to various place names across Germany, such as Fuchsstadt, Fuchsmühl, and Fuchshausen, indicating that some bearers of the name may have derived their surname from these locations.

Notable individuals with the surname Fuchs include Johannes Fuchs (1501-1566), a German botanist and physician, and Remigius Fuchs (1572-1615), a German mathematician and astronomer. In the 18th century, Gottlieb Fuchs (1722-1795) was a renowned German painter and engraver.

Other prominent bearers of the name include Ernst Fuchs (1851-1923), an Austrian chemist and industrialist who founded the modern chemical industry in Austria, and Georg Fuchs (1890-1949), a German politician and member of the Nazi party during World War II.

The surname Fuchs has also been carried by various artists, writers, and academics throughout history, such as the German painter Katharina Fuchs (1892-1967), the American writer Larry Fuchs (1925-2011), and the German political scientist Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski (born 1934).

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Fuchs

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!