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

Katz, 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 Katz surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Katz in America

Katz is the 1101st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Katz surname appeared 31,780 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 11 people would have the surname Katz.

We can also compare 2010 data for Katz 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 Katz

The surname Katz is of German and Jewish origin, derived from the Middle High German word "katze" or "katze," meaning "cat." It is believed to have first emerged as a surname in the 12th or 13th century in the Rhineland region of Germany.

The name may have been initially used as a nickname or a descriptive name for an individual who had a particularly feline-like appearance or behavior. Alternatively, it could have been an occupational surname for someone who worked with cats, such as a cat breeder or a person responsible for controlling the cat population in a certain area.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Katz can be found in the Judengasse, a Jewish quarter in the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where a family by the name of Katz is mentioned in documents dating back to the late 14th century.

In the 15th century, the surname Katz appears in various records throughout the Holy Roman Empire, including the Nuremberg Chronicle, a famous illustrated world history published in 1493. This suggests that the name had already become well-established by that time.

Notable individuals with the surname Katz throughout history include:

1. Abraham Katz (1847-1924), a prominent Russian-born American Talmudic scholar and rabbi.
2. Moses ben Jacob Katz (1612-1674), a Polish-born rabbi and author of the influential work "Talmudic Methodology."
3. Wilbur Katz (1905-1986), an American lawyer and civil rights activist who worked closely with the NAACP.
4. Jacob Katz (1904-1998), a Polish-born Israeli historian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, known for his research on Jewish social and economic history.
5. Isaac Katz (1712-1786), a German-born rabbi and author of several works on Jewish law and ethics.

It is worth noting that variations of the spelling, such as Katz, Katz, or Katze, may have been used interchangeably in different regions and time periods, reflecting the linguistic diversity and evolution of the name.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Katz

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

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

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

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