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

Gerhard, 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 Gerhard surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Gerhard in America

Gerhard is the 12068th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Gerhard surname appeared 2,584 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Gerhard.

We can also compare 2010 data for Gerhard 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 Gerhard

The surname Gerhard originated in Germany and dates back to the early medieval period. It is derived from the Germanic personal name Gerhard, which is composed of the elements "ger" meaning "spear" and "hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy". This name was popular among the Franks and other Germanic tribes during the Middle Ages.

The earliest recorded instances of the surname Gerhard can be found in various German regions, such as Bavaria, Saxony, and the Rhineland, from the 12th century onwards. It is believed that the name was initially adopted as a hereditary surname by individuals who bore the personal name Gerhard or a variant thereof.

One of the earliest known bearers of the surname was Gerhard von Rile, a nobleman and landowner who lived in the region of Westphalia in the late 12th century. His name is mentioned in several contemporary documents related to land transactions and legal disputes.

Another historical figure with the surname Gerhard was Johannes Gerhard, a prominent Lutheran theologian and scholar who lived from 1582 to 1637. He was born in Quedlinburg, Saxony, and is best known for his extensive work on Lutheran dogmatics, which influenced the development of Protestant theology in Germany.

In the 14th century, the surname Gerhard was also found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and properties in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This suggests that individuals bearing this name may have migrated from Germany to England during the Norman conquest or shortly thereafter.

Gerhard Hauptmann, a renowned German playwright and novelist, was born in 1862 in Obersalzbrunn, Silesia (now part of Poland). He was a prominent figure in the Naturalist literary movement and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912 for his works, which often explored the lives and struggles of the working class.

Another notable figure was Gerhard Löwenthal, a German-American journalist and political scientist who lived from 1922 to 2002. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and is remembered for his contributions to the study of mass media, propaganda, and political communication.

While the surname Gerhard is most commonly associated with Germany, it has also been adopted by individuals of German descent in other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, where it has undergone various spelling variations over time.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Gerhard

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Gerhard, 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!