Kalmbacher last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Kalmbacher

A surname likely derived from the German word "kalmbach" meaning a small stream.

Kalmbacher, 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 Kalmbacher surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kalmbacher in America

Kalmbacher is the 156044th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kalmbacher surname appeared 104 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Kalmbacher.

The history of the last name Kalmbacher

The surname Kalmbacher originated in Germany during the late medieval period. It is believed to have derived from the German words "kalm" meaning "chalice" and "bacher" meaning "baker", potentially indicating that the earliest bearers of this name were involved in the baking or production of communion wafers or bread for religious purposes.

The name is first recorded in the Bavarian region of southern Germany, where it likely emerged as a occupational surname among bakers who specialized in creating wafers or bread for local churches and monasteries. The earliest known record of the Kalmbacher name dates back to the 14th century, appearing in a church register from the town of Landshut in Lower Bavaria.

In the 16th century, the Kalmbacher name can be found in various historical documents from the regions of Franconia and Swabia, suggesting that the name had spread to other parts of southern Germany by this time. One notable example is Johannes Kalmbacher, a baker and merchant who lived in Nuremberg in the late 1500s.

As the name continued to spread throughout Germany over the centuries, slight variations in spelling emerged, such as Kalmbach, Kalmbacher, and Kalmbäcker. Some of these variations may have been influenced by local dialects or the adoption of the name by non-German speakers.

One of the earliest known instances of the Kalmbacher name appearing outside of Germany is in the 17th century, when a German immigrant named Hans Kalmbacher settled in the Dutch city of Amsterdam. This suggests that the name began to spread beyond German borders during this period.

Several notable individuals with the Kalmbacher surname have emerged throughout history, including:

  1. Johann Kalmbacher (1552-1629), a German composer and organist from Nuremberg.
  2. Franz Kalmbacher (1768-1853), a German sculptor and wood carver known for his religious artwork.
  3. Therese Kalmbacher (1809-1886), a German artist and painter from Munich.
  4. Friedrich Kalmbacher (1857-1928), a German engineer and inventor who patented several innovations in printing press technology.
  5. Karl Kalmbacher (1885-1957), an Austrian-German architect and urban planner who designed several notable buildings in Munich.

While the Kalmbacher surname is still most prevalent in Germany and other parts of central Europe, it has since spread to various countries around the world due to migration and immigration over the past few centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kalmbacher

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

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 Kalmbacher was:

Race/EthnicityPercentageTotal Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only92.31%96
Non-Hispanic Black Only(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races0.00%0
Hispanic Origin(S)%(S)

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.

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

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

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