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

Jansen, 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 Jansen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Jansen in America

Jansen is the 2189th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Jansen surname appeared 16,596 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 6 people would have the surname Jansen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Jansen 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 Jansen

The surname Jansen is of Dutch origin, derived from the patronymic "Jan's son" or "son of Jan". It is a common surname in the Netherlands and parts of Belgium, with roots dating back to the medieval period.

Jansen is believed to have emerged as a surname in the 13th or 14th century, as the practice of adopting hereditary surnames became more widespread in the Low Countries. The name likely originated from the popular Dutch given name Jan, a variant of the biblical name John.

One of the earliest known references to the name Jansen can be found in the records of the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, where a Gerrit Jansen was mentioned in a document dated 1359. Other early examples include Pieter Jansen, recorded in Amsterdam in 1424, and Cornelis Jansen, a Catholic theologian born in 1585 in the village of Accoy.

In the 16th century, the Jansen surname appeared in various historical records and manuscripts, such as the parish registers of the Dutch Reformed Church. During this period, the name was often spelled with variations like Jansz, Janssen, or Janssens.

Notable individuals with the surname Jansen throughout history include:

1. Cornelis Jansen (1585-1638), a Dutch Catholic bishop and theologian who founded the religious movement known as Jansenism.
2. Zacharias Jansen (1588-1638), a Dutch inventor and spectacle-maker, credited with the invention of the first compound microscope.
3. Vincent Jansen (1590-1642), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his still-life works.
4. Pieter Jansen Saenredam (1597-1665), a Dutch Golden Age painter renowned for his architectural paintings of church interiors.
5. Justus Jansen (1743-1835), a Dutch-American farmer and soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

Many place names in the Netherlands and Belgium have been influenced by the Jansen surname, such as Janskerkhof (literally "Jan's churchyard") in Utrecht and Jansenville, a town in South Africa founded by Dutch settlers with the Jansen surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Jansen

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

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

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

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