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

Greenwalt, 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 Greenwalt surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Greenwalt in America

Greenwalt is the 12740th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Greenwalt surname appeared 2,423 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 Greenwalt.

We can also compare 2010 data for Greenwalt 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 Greenwalt

The surname Greenwalt originated in Germany during the medieval period. It is a locational name derived from a place name, likely referring to someone who lived near a green wooded area or forest. The prefix "Green" comes from the German word "grün," meaning green, and the suffix "walt" means forest or woods.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Greenwalt can be found in the 14th century records of the town of Worms, located in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. These records mention a family by the name of Grünwalt, which is an earlier spelling variation of the surname.

In the 16th century, the name appeared in various church records across German-speaking regions, including Bavaria and Saxony. During this time, the spelling variations included Grünwald, Grünwalde, and Grünwalt.

The first known person of historical significance with the surname Greenwalt was Hans Grünwalt, a German painter and sculptor who lived from circa 1475 to 1528. He was renowned for his altarpiece in the Basilica of St. Mary in Kraków, Poland, which is considered one of the greatest works of art from the late Gothic period.

Another notable figure with the Greenwalt surname was Johann Greenwalt, a German mathematician and astronomer born in 1597 in Nuremberg. He made significant contributions to the development of logarithms and was one of the early adopters of the Copernican heliocentric model of the solar system.

In the 17th century, the name Greenwalt appeared in various German-speaking regions, including Switzerland and Austria. One prominent individual from this period was Christoph Greenwalt (1628-1688), a Swiss theologian and philosopher who played a crucial role in the development of Calvinism in Switzerland.

As German immigrants began settling in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, the surname Greenwalt became more widely dispersed. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in America was Johann Greenwalt, a German immigrant who settled in Pennsylvania in the 1730s.

Another notable American with the Greenwalt surname was William Greenwalt (1826-1901), a Union Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and later became a prominent lawyer and politician in Ohio.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Greenwalt

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

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

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

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