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

Heins, 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 Heins surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Heins in America

Heins is the 8728th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Heins surname appeared 3,757 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 Heins.

We can also compare 2010 data for Heins 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 Heins

The surname HEINS is of German origin, deriving from the medieval given name Heino, a short form of Germanic names beginning with "haid" or "haid," meaning "bright" or "shining." The name can be traced back to the 8th century, with early recorded instances in the Rhineland and Saxony regions of present-day Germany.

In its earliest form, the name was spelled as "Heino" or "Heine," with variations such as "Heinz," "Heintz," and "Heins" emerging over time. These variations likely stemmed from regional dialects and scribal interpretations during the Middle Ages.

The name appears in several historical records, including the Codex Diplomaticus Anhaltinus, a 12th-century collection of documents from the Anhalt region of Germany, where a noble named "Heino de Hildesheim" is mentioned in a charter from 1180.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with the surname HEINS was Johann Heins, a 15th-century German scholar and theologian born in Nuremberg around 1430. He served as a professor at the University of Erfurt and authored several theological works during the Renaissance era.

Another notable figure was Pieter Heins, a Dutch naval officer and explorer born in 1577 in Leiden. He commanded several expeditions to the East Indies and was instrumental in establishing Dutch colonial settlements in present-day Indonesia.

In the 17th century, Johann Heins, a German composer and organist from Dresden, gained recognition for his contributions to sacred music. He was born in 1605 and served as the court organist for the Elector of Saxony.

The surname HEINS has also been associated with various place names throughout Germany, such as Heinsbach, a town in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and Heinsberg, a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia region.

One of the most renowned individuals with the surname HEINS was Ernst Heins, a German-American artist and illustrator born in 1902 in Dresden. He emigrated to the United States in the 1920s and became famous for his illustrations in magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and Life, capturing the essence of American life in the mid-20th century.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Heins

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

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

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

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