Holtz last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Holtz

Derived from the German word for wood, referring to someone who lived near or worked in a wood.

Holtz, 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 Holtz surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Holtz in America

Holtz is the 3730th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Holtz surname appeared 9,502 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname Holtz.

We can also compare 2010 data for Holtz 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 3730 3559 4.69%
Count 9,502 9,160 3.67%
Proportion per 100k 3.22 3.40 -5.44%

The history of the last name Holtz

The surname Holtz is of German origin, derived from the medieval German word "holz," meaning "wood" or "forest." This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near a wooded area or worked as a forester or woodsman.

Holtz is an ancient German surname that can be traced back to the 13th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is found in the German town of Lübeck, where a man named Hartwig Holtz was mentioned in a document from 1290.

During the Middle Ages, the name Holtz appeared in various historical records and manuscripts across Germany. For example, in the 14th century, a man named Johannes Holtz was listed as a citizen of the city of Cologne.

In the 16th century, the surname Holtz was found in several regions of Germany, including the areas around the cities of Hamburg, Hannover, and Berlin. It was also associated with the German nobility, as evidenced by the presence of a noble family named Holtz in the principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

One of the earliest known bearers of the surname Holtz was Hans Holtz, a German painter and engraver who lived in the 15th century. Another notable figure was Johann Holtz, a German mathematician and astronomer who lived from 1640 to 1711 and made significant contributions to the study of optics and electricity.

In the 18th century, the name Holtz was particularly prominent in the city of Dresden, where a family of artists and artisans bearing the surname were active. This included Johann Georg Holtz, a renowned silversmith who was born in 1706 and created exquisite pieces for the royal court of Saxony.

Another famous bearer of the Holtz surname was Johann Wilhelm Holtz, a German physicist who lived from 1836 to 1913. He is best known for his invention of the Holtz electrostatic machine, a device used to generate high voltages through the principles of electrostatic induction.

In the 19th century, the Holtz name was also found in various parts of Europe, as Germans emigrated to other countries. For instance, a man named Friedrich Holtz was born in Germany in 1836 but later settled in England, where he became a renowned architect and designed several notable buildings.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Holtz

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

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 Holtz was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 93.38% 8,873
Non-Hispanic Black Only 1.93% 183
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.59% 56
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.34% 32
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.16% 110
Hispanic Origin 2.61% 248

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 Holtz has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 93.38% 94.86% -1.57%
Black 1.93% 1.88% 2.62%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.59% 0.33% 56.52%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.34% 0.29% 15.87%
Two or More Races 1.16% 1.27% -9.05%
Hispanic 2.61% 1.38% 61.65%

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

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

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"Holtz last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 4, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/holtz-surname-popularity/.

"Holtz last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/holtz-surname-popularity/. Accessed 4 December, 2024

Holtz last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/holtz-surname-popularity/.

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