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

Hoelscher, 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 Hoelscher surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Hoelscher in America

Hoelscher is the 9594th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Hoelscher surname appeared 3,387 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 Hoelscher.

We can also compare 2010 data for Hoelscher 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 Hoelscher

The surname Hoelscher originates from Germany, with its earliest known presence dating back to the 16th century. It is believed to have derived from the Middle Low German word "holt," which means "wood" or "forest," combined with the suffix "-scher," indicating someone who lived near or worked in a wooded area.

One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Hoelscher can be found in a land registry from the town of Emmerich, located in the Lower Rhine region of Germany, dated 1572. This document references a Johann Hoelscher, who owned a parcel of land near the town's outskirts.

During the 17th century, the name appears in various church records and official documents across several German states, suggesting its widespread use and potential variations in spelling, such as Hölscher, Holscher, and Hoelsher.

In the 18th century, a notable figure bearing the name Hoelscher was Johann Christoph Hoelscher, a renowned clockmaker from the city of Göttingen, who lived from 1711 to 1789. His intricate timepieces were highly sought after by the nobility and wealthy merchants of the time.

Another prominent individual with the surname Hoelscher was Friedrich Wilhelm Hoelscher, a German philosopher and professor who taught at the University of Halle in the early 19th century. He was born in 1784 and died in 1853, leaving behind several published works on metaphysics and ethics.

During the 19th century, the Hoelscher name also appeared in historical records related to the German migration to the United States. One such example is Christian Hoelscher, who arrived in Texas in 1846 and became a successful landowner and cattle rancher in the Hill Country region.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several notable Hoelschers emerged in the fields of literature and art. Carl Hoelscher, born in 1858 in Bavaria, was a celebrated landscape painter whose works captured the beauty of the German countryside.

Finally, a more recent figure with the Hoelscher surname is Werner Hoelscher, a German-American author and historian born in 1916. He wrote extensively about the experiences of German immigrants in the United States, publishing several books on the subject before his death in 2004.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Hoelscher

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

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

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

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