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

Horwitz, 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 Horwitz surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Horwitz in America

Horwitz is the 9940th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Horwitz surname appeared 3,246 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 Horwitz.

We can also compare 2010 data for Horwitz 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 Horwitz

The surname Horwitz originates from Eastern Europe, specifically from the region of Poland and Belarus. It is believed to have derived from the Old Belarusian word "horod," meaning "town" or "city." The name likely referred to someone who hailed from a particular town or settlement.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Horwitz can be traced back to the 16th century in Polish and Belarusian records, although variations in spelling were common, such as Horowicz, Horowitz, and Gorodetz. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Yitzhak Horwitz, a prominent Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in Cracow, Poland, in the late 16th century.

In the 17th century, the surname Horwitz appeared in various historical documents, including tax records and birth registers in the regions of Grodno and Minsk, which were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the time. Notable individuals from this era include Shlomo Horwitz, a renowned kabbalist and author who lived in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in the mid-17th century.

As the Jewish population in Eastern Europe faced persecution and displacement, many individuals bearing the surname Horwitz emigrated to other parts of Europe and eventually to the Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in the United States was that of Joseph Horwitz, a merchant from Prussia who settled in Philadelphia in the late 18th century.

Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the surname Horwitz, including:

1. Maxim Litvinov (born Meir Henoch Mosesovich Wallach-Finkelstein, later known as Maxim Maximovich Litvinov, 1876-1951), a Soviet revolutionary and diplomat who served as the Soviet Foreign Minister from 1930 to 1939.

2. Vladimir Horwitz (1891-1969), a Russian-American film director and screenwriter who worked in the early days of Hollywood and is best known for directing the 1925 silent film "The Unholy Three."

3. Sari Nusseibeh (born 1949), a Palestinian philosopher and professor who served as the President of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem and played a prominent role in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

4. Zina Bethune (born Zina Horwitz, 1945-2012), an American dancer, choreographer, and artistic director who founded the Bethune Theatredanse company and was known for her innovative and avant-garde dance productions.

5. Julius Horwitz (1879-1945), an American businessman and politician who served as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1933 to 1935.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Horwitz

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

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

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

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