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

Kasem, 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 Kasem surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kasem in America

Kasem is the 54864th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kasem surname appeared 375 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 Kasem.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kasem 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 Kasem

The surname Kasem is believed to have originated in Lebanon. It is an Arabic name that can be traced back to the 7th century AD, during the early Islamic era. The name is derived from the Arabic word "qasim," which means "distributer" or "divider." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who worked as a divider of property or resources.

In the early days of Islam, as the Arab empire expanded, many people from the Arabian Peninsula, including those with the surname Kasem, migrated to different parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Some of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kasem can be found in medieval documents from the region, such as property records and tax registers.

One of the earliest known individuals with the surname Kasem was Abu al-Qasim al-Kasemi, a renowned scholar and poet who lived in the 10th century AD in Baghdad, Iraq. He was known for his contributions to Arabic literature and poetry.

Another notable figure was Ibn al-Qasim al-Kasemi, a 12th-century Muslim jurist and legal scholar from Seville, Spain. He wrote extensively on Islamic jurisprudence and his works were widely studied in the Iberian Peninsula during the era of Muslim rule.

In the 13th century, there is a record of a prominent family with the surname Kasem living in the city of Damascus, Syria. The family was known for their involvement in trade and commerce, and their name can be found in various business transactions and property records from that time.

During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over much of the Middle East and North Africa from the 14th to the early 20th century, the surname Kasem was relatively common among both Arabs and Turks. One notable individual from this period was Ahmed Kasem Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and diplomat who served as the Grand Vizier (prime minister) of the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th century.

In more recent history, the surname Kasem has been associated with several notable figures in the Arab world. For example, Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi-British businessman and philanthropist born in 1937, and Ahmed Kasem, an Egyptian actor and comedian who was born in 1958 and appeared in numerous films and TV shows.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kasem

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

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

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

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