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

Hecht, 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 Hecht surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hecht in America

Hecht is the 4744th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hecht surname appeared 7,466 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname Hecht.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hecht 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 Hecht

The surname HECHT is of German origin, emerging in the late medieval period around the 13th century. It is derived from the Middle High German word "heht," meaning "pike" or "luce," a type of freshwater fish. This occupational surname was likely given to individuals involved in fishing or selling fish, particularly pike.

The earliest recorded instances of the HECHT surname can be found in various German regional records and town chronicles from the 14th and 15th centuries. For example, the name appears in the Nuremberg tax rolls of 1387 and the Cologne city records of 1481.

One of the earliest known bearers of the HECHT name was Hans Hecht, a merchant and burgher of the city of Nuremberg, who lived in the late 15th century. Another notable figure was Johann Hecht, a Protestant reformer and theologian from Saxony, born in 1520 and died in 1590.

The HECHT surname is also associated with several place names in Germany, such as Hechtheim, a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, and Hechtsheim, a district of Mainz. These places likely derived their names from the German word "hecht," indicating the presence of pike fish in nearby water bodies.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the HECHT surname spread across various regions of Germany and beyond, as individuals migrated and settled in new areas. Notable bearers of the name during this period include Johann Hecht, a German painter and engraver active in the late 16th century, and Johann Michael Hecht, a German composer and music theorist born in 1665.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, several individuals with the HECHT surname made significant contributions in various fields. For instance, Christian Gottlieb Hecht, born in 1771, was a German jurist and legal scholar. Johann Baptist Hecht, born in 1758, was a German Catholic theologian and philosopher.

Other notable figures with the HECHT surname include the German composer and pianist Max Hecht, born in 1851, and the German-American architect and urban planner Walter Hecht, born in 1897 and responsible for designing several notable buildings in New York City.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hecht

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

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

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

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