2000
#518
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 57,822
First available Census row
Per 100,000 21.43
Uncommon Last name
Hess
A German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) toponymic surname derived from various places named Hess or Hesse.
According to the 2020 US Census Bureau surname tables, roughly 66,002 Americans carry the last name Hess. That puts it at #573 in the national surname ranking, appearing at a frequency of 19.26 per 100,000 people (about 1 in 5,193 residents).
This page is the full Name Census profile for the Hess 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.
For British records, Name Census UK has a British surname profile for Hess with 1881 census detail, origin facts and modern UK distribution where available.
Bearers in the US
66K
1 in 5,193
Census rank
#573
2020 decennial data
Per 100,000
19.3
Frequency rate
Recorded bearers
58K
uncommon in the US
Popularity narrative
The Census Bureau recorded 57,557 bearers of the surname Hess in its 2020 decennial surname file. At a rate of 19.26 per 100,000 residents, it holds the 573rd position in the national surname ranking.
Among Census respondents with the surname Hess, the largest self-reported group is White at 91.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.1%) and Hispanic (3.1%).
Origin
Meaning and origin of Hess
The surname Hess is of German origin, derived from the Middle High German word "hesse," meaning "dweller on a heathland or barren area." The name first appeared in the 13th century in the region of Hesse, located in central Germany.
In its earliest form, the name was spelled as "Hesse" or "Hessen," referring to people from the area of Hesse. Over time, the spelling evolved to "Hess," reflecting the pronunciation changes in the German language.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Anhaltinus, a collection of historical documents from the region of Anhalt, dated around 1350. The document mentions a person named "Johannes Hesse."
The name Hess is also found in the Berne Chronicle, a 15th-century illustrated manuscript chronicling the history of the city of Berne, Switzerland. It mentions a member of the Hess family who held a prominent position in the city's governance.
Notable individuals with the surname Hess include:
1. Rudolf Hess (1894-1987), a prominent Nazi official and Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party.
2. Hans Hess (1490-1549), a German painter and engraver known for his religious works during the Renaissance.
3. Germain Henri Hess (1802-1850), a Swiss-Russian chemist and physician, best known for his work on the conservation of energy and the formulation of Hess's law.
4. Walter Rudolf Hess (1881-1973), a Swiss physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for his discovery of the functional organization of the interbrain as a coordinator of the activities of the individual organs.
5. Moses Hess (1812-1875), a German philosopher and one of the founders of Labor Zionism, who played a significant role in the development of socialist theory and the early Zionist movement.
The name Hess has also been associated with various place names, such as Hessisch Oldendorf, a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, and the Hessian region in central Germany, which was once a separate state within the Holy Roman Empire.
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hess
Among Census respondents with the surname Hess, the largest self-reported group is White at 91.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.1%) and Hispanic (3.1%).
The bar chart below shows how Hess bearers described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 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 Hess surname at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.7% · 52,752
- Two or more races3.1% · 1,806
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 1,758
- Black or African American1.0% · 588
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 419
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 234
Timeline
Historical Census data for Hess
Hess appears in 3 published Census surname files: 2000, 2010, 2020. The cards below show how the name's rank and bearer count changed across each release.
2010
#564
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 59,486
+1,664 bearers (+2.9%)
Per 100,000 20.17
Rank movement Down 46 places
2020
#573
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 57,557
-1,929 bearers (-3.2%)
Per 100,000 19.26
Rank movement Down 9 places
| Year | Rank | Count | Per 100K | Count change | Rank change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | #518 | 57,822 | 21.43 | First available Census row | First available Census row |
| 2010 | #564 | 59,486 | 20.17 | +1,664 bearers (+2.9%) | Down 46 places |
| 2020 | #573 | 57,557 | 19.26 | -1,929 bearers (-3.2%) | Down 9 places |
For 2020, the Census Bureau published race and Hispanic-origin columns as counts rather than percentages. Name Census converts those counts back into shares so the ancestry section stays comparable with the older surname files.
Year on year
2010 vs 2020 Census
How has the Hess surname changed between Census years? The chart shows bearer count side by side, and the table compares rank, count, and frequency.
Census year comparison
20102020
| Metric | 2010 | 2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #564 | #573 | -1.6% |
| Count | 59,486 | 57,557 | -3.2% |
| Per 100K | 20.17 | 19.26 | -4.5% |
Between the 2010 and 2020 Census, the number of Hess bearers went from 59,486 to 57,557 (-3.2% change). The surname moved down 9 positions in the national ranking, going from #564 to #573.
Notable bearers
Famous people with the surname Hess
FAQ
Hess surname: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. have the surname Hess?
Name Census estimates that about 66,002 living Americans carry the surname Hess. Using the current population baseline, that works out to roughly 1 in 5,193 residents.
How common is Hess?
Hess ranks #573 in the 2020 Census surname tables and is classified on this site as "Uncommon." The Census recorded the name at a frequency of 19.26 per 100,000 residents, which is about 19 people out of every 100,000.
How many people with this surname were counted in the Census?
The raw 2020 Census file counted 57,557 people with the surname Hess. That is different from the site's living-bearer estimate (66,002), which projects the surname's present-day count by applying the Census frequency rate to the current U.S. population.
What does 19.26 per 100,000 actually mean?
It is the Census Bureau's normalized frequency measure. A rate of 19.26 per 100,000 means that if you picked a random group of 100,000 U.S. residents, you would expect about 19 of them to have the surname Hess.
Has Hess become more or less common over time?
Between 2010 and 2020, the surname Hess went from 59,486 recorded bearers to 57,557. That is a decrease of 1,929 (-3.2%). In the national ranking it fell from #564 to #573.
What does the Census say about the background of Hess?
Among Census respondents with the surname Hess, the largest self-reported group is White at 91.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.1%) and Hispanic (3.1%). These figures come from the 2020 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 Hess in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.7% (52,752 people in the source table).
What is the full ancestry breakdown?
Hess appears across multiple self-reported groups in the Census data. The largest shares in the 2020 file are White (91.7%), Two or More Races (3.1%), Hispanic (3.1%). For 2020, the source file also published raw headcounts for each group, which is why this page can show both percentages and counts in the ancestry section.
Is this page using the latest Census data?
Yes. This page is using the latest surname file currently loaded on Name Census, which is 2020. The historical section above also keeps any older Census surname entries we have for Hess (2000, 2010, 2020).
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 Hess mean?
A German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) toponymic surname derived from various places named Hess or Hesse. 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 2020 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 Hess (19.26 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 common is the surname Hess?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how common the surname Hess is at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.