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

Hillegass, 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 Hillegass surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hillegass in America

Hillegass is the 24855th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hillegass surname appeared 1,001 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Hillegass.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hillegass 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 Hillegass

The surname Hillegass is of German origin, originating from the Middle High German words "hille" meaning "hill" and "gasse" meaning "street" or "lane". It is believed to have first emerged in the 14th century in the regions of Bavaria and Franconia in southern Germany, where it was likely used as a descriptive name for someone who lived on a street located on a hill.

One of the earliest documented references to the surname Hillegass can be found in the town records of Nürnberg, Bavaria, dating back to the year 1389, where a certain Hans Hillegasse is mentioned as a resident. Another early record comes from the city of Würzburg in Franconia, where a Michael Hillegass is listed as a guild member in 1427.

The surname Hillegass made its way to other parts of Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, as evidenced by records in Switzerland and the Netherlands. One notable individual was Johann Hillegass, a Swiss Protestant theologian born in Basel in 1546, who played a significant role in the Reformation movement.

In the 18th century, members of the Hillegass family began to emigrate to the American colonies, with the first known arrival being that of Hans Peter Hillegass, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1737. His grandson, Michael Hillegas, born in 1729, became a prominent figure in the American Revolution, serving as the first Treasurer of the United States from 1775 to 1789.

Other notable individuals with the surname Hillegass include Johann Hillegass, a German-born American portrait painter active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and Theodor Hillegass, a German-American educator and textbook author born in 1836, who published widely used study guides for literary classics.

In the 19th century, the Hillegass surname was also found in various regions of Germany, such as Saxony and Württemberg, as well as in the Netherlands and Switzerland. One prominent figure was Carl Hillegass, a German-American artist born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1853, known for his landscape paintings of the American West.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hillegass

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

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

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

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