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

Hering, 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 Hering surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hering in America

Hering is the 9701st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hering surname appeared 3,344 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 Hering.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hering 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 Hering

The surname Hering originates from Germany and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is a locational name, derived from the German word 'hering', meaning 'herring', a type of fish. This suggests that the name likely originated from a place where herring fishing or trade was prominent.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hering can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus, a collection of medieval documents from the 12th century, which mentions a person named Hermannus Hering residing in the town of Quedlinburg, Saxony.

In the 13th century, there are records of the Hering family residing in the city of Lübeck, a major trading center in northern Germany. This further supports the association of the name with the herring trade or fishing industry.

The Hering name also appears in the Bürgeraufnahmen, the records of new citizens in the city of Frankfurt am Main, dating back to the 14th century. This suggests that the name had spread to other parts of Germany by that time.

One notable figure with the surname Hering was Johann Hering (1607-1662), a German lawyer and politician who served as the mayor of Leipzig from 1648 to 1662.

Another prominent individual was Ewald Hering (1834-1918), a German physiologist who made significant contributions to the study of color vision and visual perception. He is known for formulating the opponent process theory of color vision.

In the 19th century, the Hering family played a role in the textile industry in the Saxony region of Germany. Johann Gottfried Hering (1767-1847) established a successful textile manufacturing company in the town of Zittau.

The name Hering can also be found in various place names across Germany, such as Heringsdorf, a seaside resort town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Heringsweiler, a village in Baden-Württemberg.

Over time, the surname Hering has spread to other parts of Europe and beyond, carried by emigrants and travelers. Some notable individuals with this surname include Constance Hering (1799-1868), an English writer and traveler, and Georges Hering (1805-1879), a French mathematician and astronomer.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hering

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

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

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

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