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

Janzen, 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 Janzen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Janzen in America

Janzen is the 10465th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Janzen surname appeared 3,072 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 Janzen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Janzen 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 Janzen

The surname Janzen has its roots in the Low German and Dutch languages, originating in the early 16th century. It is a patronymic name, derived from the personal name "Jan" or "Johannes," which was a popular name in the region during that time. The suffix "zen" or "sen" indicates "son of," so the name literally means "son of Jan" or "son of Johannes."

Janzen is predominantly found in the northern regions of Germany, particularly in the states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. It is also common in the neighboring Netherlands and parts of Denmark. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to church records and civil registries from the mid-16th century in these areas.

One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Gerrit Janzen, a Dutch merchant who lived in Amsterdam in the late 16th century. His son, Jan Gerritsz Janzen, was a prominent figure in the Dutch East India Company and served as a governor in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) in the early 17th century.

Another notable figure with the Janzen surname was Hans Janzen, a German Lutheran theologian and reformer who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He played a significant role in the Reformation movement in northern Germany and wrote several influential works on theology and religious doctrine.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, many Janzen families emigrated from Germany and the Netherlands to other parts of Europe and North America. One such individual was Johann Janzen, a German immigrant who settled in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) in the early 19th century. He was part of a wave of German settlers who were invited to establish agricultural communities in the region by the Russian government.

In more recent times, notable individuals with the Janzen surname include Peter Janzen, a Canadian author and academic born in 1957, and Gerhard Janzen, a German-born American botanist and environmentalist (1939-2012) who made significant contributions to the study of plant ecology and conservation.

While the surname Janzen is most prevalent in northern Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of North America with significant German and Dutch immigrant populations, it has also spread to other regions through migration and cultural exchange over the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Janzen

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

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

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

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