Heerwagen
An old German surname referring to a military wagon driver or transporter.
According to the 2010 US Census Bureau surname tables, roughly 137 Americans carry the last name Heerwagen. That puts it at #151,532 in the national surname ranking, appearing at a frequency of 0.04 per 100,000 people (about 1 in 2,501,856 residents).
This page is the full Name Census profile for the Heerwagen surname. You will find the Census Bureau frequency data, a multi-census history view, an ancestry and ethnicity breakdown based on self-reported demographics, the name's meaning and origin where available, and answers to the most common questions people ask about this surname.
Heerwagen appeared in the 2010 Census surname file but was not included in the published 2020 file. The Census Bureau only publishes surnames with at least 100 recorded bearers, so this usually means the name fell below that threshold.
Bearers in the US
137
1 in 2,501,856
Census rank
#151,532
2010 decennial data
Per 100,000
0.0
Frequency rate
Recorded bearers
108
very rare in the US
Popularity narrative
The Census Bureau recorded 108 bearers of the surname Heerwagen in its 2010 decennial surname file. At a rate of 0.04 per 100,000 residents, it holds the 151532nd position in the national surname ranking.
Among Census respondents with the surname Heerwagen, the largest self-reported group is White at 96.3%.
Origin
Meaning and origin of Heerwagen
The surname Heerwagen has its roots in Germany, originating in the Middle Ages around the 13th century. The name is derived from the German words "Heer," meaning army, and "Wagen," meaning wagon or cart, suggesting an association with military transportation or supply.
In its earliest form, the name was likely spelled as "Herwagen" or "Heerewagen," reflecting the regional dialects and variations in spelling conventions at the time. The name may have referred to individuals who were responsible for transporting supplies or equipment for the military, or it could have been an occupational surname for those involved in wagon-making or transportation.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Heerwagen can be found in the "Urkundenbuch der Stadt Freiburg," a collection of historical documents from the city of Freiburg, dating back to the 14th century. The name is mentioned in connection with various trades and professions within the city's records.
In the 16th century, a notable figure bearing the name Heerwagen was Hans Heerwagen, a German artist and engraver from Nuremberg, born around 1500. His works included illustrations for books and woodcuts depicting religious and allegorical scenes.
During the 17th century, the Heerwagen name appeared in various regions of Germany, including the states of Bavaria and Saxony. Johann Georg Heerwagen, born in 1664 in Dresden, was a prominent German jurist and legal scholar who served as a court councilor and published several works on jurisprudence.
Moving into the 18th century, a notable bearer of the Heerwagen name was Friedrich Heerwagen, a German theologian and philosopher born in 1733 in Nuremberg. He wrote extensively on religious and philosophical topics, and his works were widely read and influential during the Enlightenment period.
In the 19th century, the Heerwagen surname gained further recognition with the birth of Adolf Heerwagen in 1832 in Mannheim, Germany. He was a renowned historian and archivist who made significant contributions to the study of German history and the preservation of historical documents.
Throughout its history, the Heerwagen name has been associated with various professions, from artists and scholars to tradesmen and military personnel, reflecting the diverse origins and meanings behind this German surname.
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Heerwagen
Among Census respondents with the surname Heerwagen, the largest self-reported group is White at 96.3%.
The bar chart below shows how Heerwagen bearers described their own race and ethnicity on the 2010 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given surname, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown for every Census year so the breakdown stays comparable over time. When the source file also includes raw headcounts, Name Census shows those alongside the percentages in the legend.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A person's surname does not determine their race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the Heerwagen surname at the time of the 2010 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.3%
- Unknown or suppressed3.7%
FAQ
Heerwagen surname: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. have the surname Heerwagen?
Name Census estimates that about 137 living Americans carry the surname Heerwagen. Using the current population baseline, that works out to roughly 1 in 2,501,856 residents.
How common is Heerwagen?
Heerwagen ranks #151,532 in the 2010 Census surname tables and is classified on this site as "Very Rare." The Census recorded the name at a frequency of 0.04 per 100,000 residents, which is about 0 people out of every 100,000.
How many people with this surname were counted in the Census?
The raw 2010 Census file counted 108 people with the surname Heerwagen. That is different from the site's living-bearer estimate (137), which projects the surname's present-day count by applying the Census frequency rate to the current U.S. population.
What does 0.04 per 100,000 actually mean?
It is the Census Bureau's normalized frequency measure. A rate of 0.04 per 100,000 means that if you picked a random group of 100,000 U.S. residents, you would expect about 0 of them to have the surname Heerwagen.
Has Heerwagen become more or less common over time?
Heerwagen appears here with 2010 Census data. When additional surname-file years are available for this name, Name Census uses them to show longer-term movement in rank and bearer count.
What does the Census say about the background of Heerwagen?
Among Census respondents with the surname Heerwagen, the largest self-reported group is White at 96.3%. These figures come from the 2010 Census Bureau surname tables, based on how respondents described their own race and ethnicity.
Which group reports this surname most often?
White is the largest self-reported group for the surname Heerwagen in the 2010 Census, accounting for 96.3%.
What is the full ancestry breakdown?
Heerwagen appears across multiple self-reported groups in the Census data. The largest shares in the 2010 file are White (96.3%).
Is this page using the latest Census data?
Not necessarily. Heerwagen appears here with 2010 Census data, while the latest surname file loaded on Name Census is 2020. When a surname drops below the Census publication threshold, older rows can still be kept for historical reference even if the name no longer appears in the newest file.
Does the Census include every surname?
No. The Census Bureau only publishes surnames that appeared at least 100 times in a given decennial Census. That means very rare surnames are excluded entirely, and a surname can appear in one Census release but disappear from a later one if it falls below the reporting threshold.
Why don't the ancestry percentages always add up to exactly 100%?
There are two main reasons: rounding and suppression. The Census Bureau rounds published values, and it may suppress very small cells to protect privacy. For 2020, the Bureau also published raw group counts rather than direct percentages, so Name Census converts those counts back into shares for comparability across census years.
What does Heerwagen mean?
An old German surname referring to a military wagon driver or transporter. The fuller origin note on this page goes into more detail.
Where does the surname data come from?
All surname statistics on Name Census are drawn from the US Census Bureau's decennial surname frequency tables. These files list every surname that appeared 100 or more times in the 2010 Census, along with a count, a per-100,000 rate, and a self-reported demographic breakdown. You can read the full explanation on our methodology page.
How does Name Census estimate living bearers?
For surnames, Name Census does not age cohorts the way it does for first names. Instead, it takes the Census Bureau's published frequency for Heerwagen (0.04 per 100,000) and applies that rate to the current U.S. resident population to estimate how many living Americans have the surname today.
How many Americans have the surname Heerwagen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.