Gundlach last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Gundlach

A surname of Germanic origin meaning "son of Gundlach", a personal name formed from the elements "gund" (war) and "lach" (dweller).

Gundlach, 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 Gundlach surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Gundlach in America

Gundlach is the 15985th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Gundlach surname appeared 1,816 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 Gundlach.

We can also compare 2010 data for Gundlach 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 15985 14671 8.57%
Count 1,816 1,858 -2.29%
Proportion per 100k 0.62 0.69 -10.69%

The history of the last name Gundlach

The surname GUNDLACH is of German origin, deriving from the Germanic personal name Gundlach, which itself is a compound of the elements "gund" meaning "battle" and "lach" meaning "play" or "sport." It likely emerged during the Middle Ages, between the 5th and 15th centuries, in the regions that now comprise modern-day Germany.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the GUNDLACH surname can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus, a collection of historical documents from the region of Westphalia, Germany, dating back to the 13th century. The name appears in various spellings, including Gundlach, Gundlachs, and Gundlache, throughout these ancient records.

In the 14th century, a knight named Konrad Gundlach is mentioned in the chronicles of the city of Nuremberg, suggesting that the name was associated with nobility during that time period. Additionally, the town of Gundlach, located in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, may have derived its name from an early bearer of the GUNDLACH surname, although the exact origins of the place name are unclear.

Notable individuals with the GUNDLACH surname throughout history include:

  1. Johann Gundlach (1638-1706), a German composer and organist who served as Kapellmeister in the court of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

  2. Christian Gundlach (1759-1839), a German theologian and philosopher who taught at the University of Marburg.

  3. Ernst Gundlach (1834-1908), a German botanist and naturalist who conducted extensive research on the flora of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

  4. Johann Gundlach (1855-1931), a German-American optician and founder of the Gundlach-Manhattan Optical Company, known for developing high-quality camera lenses and telescopes.

  5. Jörg Michael Gundlach (born 1957), a German mathematician and professor at the University of Bonn, known for his contributions to differential geometry and global analysis.

While the GUNDLACH surname has its roots in Germany, it has since spread to other parts of the world through emigration, particularly to North America and other regions with significant German diaspora populations.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Gundlach

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

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 Gundlach was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 96.42% 1,751
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.44% 8
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 0.99% 18
Hispanic Origin 1.65% 30

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 Gundlach has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 96.42% 97.52% -1.13%
Black (S)% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.44% 0.59% -29.13%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 0.99% 0.65% 41.46%
Hispanic 1.65% 0.75% 75.00%

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

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

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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!

"Gundlach last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/gundlach-surname-popularity/.

"Gundlach last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/gundlach-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

Gundlach last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/gundlach-surname-popularity/.

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