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

Hellman, 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 Hellman surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hellman in America

Hellman is the 9661st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hellman surname appeared 3,360 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 Hellman.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hellman 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 Hellman

The surname Hellman is of German origin, tracing its roots back to the medieval era. It is derived from the Old High German word "hella," which means "bright" or "shining," and the suffix "-man," which denotes a person. Therefore, the name Hellman initially referred to a person with a bright or radiant appearance.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hellman can be found in the Codex Traditionum Westfalicarum, a medieval cartulary from the 11th century, where it appears as "Hellemann." This suggests that the surname was already in use in the region of Westphalia, Germany, during that time.

In the 13th century, the name Hellman was also mentioned in the Annales Monasterii Bremensis, a chronicle of the Benedictine monastery in Bremen, Germany. This indicates that the name had spread to other parts of northern Germany by that period.

The surname Hellman has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history. One of the earliest was Henricus Hellman, a German theologian and academic who lived in the late 15th century and served as the rector of the University of Greifswald.

Another prominent figure with this surname was Johann Hellman (1532-1598), a German humanist scholar and poet who was a professor at the University of Jena and known for his Latin works.

In the 17th century, Johann Hellman (1608-1673) was a German jurist and legal scholar who served as a professor of law at the University of Rostock and wrote several treatises on legal topics.

The name Hellman has also been associated with places in Germany, such as the village of Hellmannshofen in Bavaria, which likely derived its name from an early settler or landowner with the surname Hellman.

In the 19th century, Carl Hellman (1835-1909) was a German-American industrialist who founded the Hellman Brewing Company in Los Angeles, California, and played a significant role in the development of the city's beer industry.

These examples illustrate the rich history and diversity of the surname Hellman, which has been carried by scholars, academics, legal professionals, industrialists, and others across various regions and time periods.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hellman

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

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

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

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