2000
#127,948
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 123
First available Census row
Per 100,000 0.05
Very Rare Last name
Keroack
A toponymic surname referring to someone from the town of Kerowak in France.
According to the 2020 US Census Bureau surname tables, roughly 125 Americans carry the last name Keroack. That puts it at #150,205 in the national surname ranking, appearing at a frequency of 0.04 per 100,000 people (about 1 in 2,742,035 residents).
This page is the full Name Census profile for the Keroack surname. You will find the Census Bureau frequency data, a multi-census history view, an ancestry and ethnicity breakdown based on self-reported demographics, the name's meaning and origin where available, and answers to the most common questions people ask about this surname.
Bearers in the US
125
1 in 2,742,035
Census rank
#150,205
2020 decennial data
Per 100,000
0.0
Frequency rate
Recorded bearers
109
very rare in the US
Popularity narrative
The Census Bureau recorded 109 bearers of the surname Keroack in its 2020 decennial surname file. At a rate of 0.04 per 100,000 residents, it holds the 150205th position in the national surname ranking.
Among Census respondents with the surname Keroack, the largest self-reported group is White at 97.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.8%) and Two or More Races (0.9%).
Origin
Meaning and origin of Keroack
The surname Keroack originates from Brittany, a cultural region in the northwest of France. It is believed to have derived from the Breton words "ker" meaning "village" and "oc'h" meaning "near". This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who lived near a particular village or settlement.
Keroack is an anglicized spelling of the French surname Kerouac, which is found in historical records dating back to the 16th century. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is in the parish records of Saint-Malo in Brittany, where a Jean Kerouac was listed in 1584.
The surname is also found in various forms in medieval Breton manuscripts and charters, including Kerouac, Kerouach, and Kerouak. These variations likely arose from regional pronunciation differences and spelling conventions of the time.
In the 17th century, several individuals bearing the Kerouac surname emigrated from Brittany to New France (modern-day Quebec and eastern Canada). One of the earliest recorded settlers was René Kerouac, who arrived in Quebec in 1636 and later married in 1638.
A notable figure who bore the surname was the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), whose writing was instrumental in the Beat Generation literary movement. His French-Canadian ancestry can be traced back to the original Breton immigrants who carried the Kerouac name to North America.
Other individuals of historical significance with the Keroack or Kerouac surname include:
1. Jacques Kerouac (1597-1662), a merchant and landowner in Brittany.
2. Joseph-Théodore Kerouac (1825-1902), a Canadian farmer and politician in Quebec.
3. Léo Kerouac (1935-2009), a Canadian ice hockey player who competed in the 1968 Winter Olympics.
4. Gabrielle Keroack (1892-1969), a Canadian artist known for her landscape paintings.
5. Jean-Baptiste Keroack (1720-1793), a French-Canadian farmer and militia captain during the American Revolutionary War.
While the surname Keroack is not among the most common surnames globally, its origins can be traced back to the historic regions of Brittany and its early settlers in North America, where it has persisted as a distinctly French-Canadian name.
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Keroack
Among Census respondents with the surname Keroack, the largest self-reported group is White at 97.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.8%) and Two or More Races (0.9%).
The bar chart below shows how Keroack bearers described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given surname, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown for every Census year so the breakdown stays comparable over time. When the source file also includes raw headcounts, Name Census shows those alongside the percentages in the legend.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A person's surname does not determine their race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the Keroack surname at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White97.2% · 106
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 2
- Two or more races0.9% · 1
Timeline
Historical Census data for Keroack
Keroack appears in 3 published Census surname files: 2000, 2010, 2020. The cards below show how the name's rank and bearer count changed across each release.
2010
#134,712
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 125
+2 bearers (+1.6%)
Per 100,000 0.04
Rank movement Down 6,764 places
2020
#150,205
National surname rank
Recorded bearers 109
-16 bearers (-12.8%)
Per 100,000 0.04
Rank movement Down 15,493 places
| Year | Rank | Count | Per 100K | Count change | Rank change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | #127,948 | 123 | 0.05 | First available Census row | First available Census row |
| 2010 | #134,712 | 125 | 0.04 | +2 bearers (+1.6%) | Down 6,764 places |
| 2020 | #150,205 | 109 | 0.04 | -16 bearers (-12.8%) | Down 15,493 places |
For 2020, the Census Bureau published race and Hispanic-origin columns as counts rather than percentages. Name Census converts those counts back into shares so the ancestry section stays comparable with the older surname files.
Year on year
2010 vs 2020 Census
How has the Keroack surname changed between Census years? The chart shows bearer count side by side, and the table compares rank, count, and frequency.
Census year comparison
20102020
| Metric | 2010 | 2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #134,712 | #150,205 | -11.5% |
| Count | 125 | 109 | -12.8% |
| Per 100K | 0.04 | 0.04 | -8.8% |
Between the 2010 and 2020 Census, the number of Keroack bearers went from 125 to 109 (-12.8% change). The surname moved down 15,493 positions in the national ranking, going from #134,712 to #150,205.
FAQ
Keroack surname: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. have the surname Keroack?
Name Census estimates that about 125 living Americans carry the surname Keroack. Using the current population baseline, that works out to roughly 1 in 2,742,035 residents.
How common is Keroack?
Keroack ranks #150,205 in the 2020 Census surname tables and is classified on this site as "Very Rare." The Census recorded the name at a frequency of 0.04 per 100,000 residents, which is about 0 people out of every 100,000.
How many people with this surname were counted in the Census?
The raw 2020 Census file counted 109 people with the surname Keroack. That is different from the site's living-bearer estimate (125), which projects the surname's present-day count by applying the Census frequency rate to the current U.S. population.
What does 0.04 per 100,000 actually mean?
It is the Census Bureau's normalized frequency measure. A rate of 0.04 per 100,000 means that if you picked a random group of 100,000 U.S. residents, you would expect about 0 of them to have the surname Keroack.
Has Keroack become more or less common over time?
Between 2010 and 2020, the surname Keroack went from 125 recorded bearers to 109. That is a decrease of 16 (-12.8%). In the national ranking it fell from #134,712 to #150,205.
What does the Census say about the background of Keroack?
Among Census respondents with the surname Keroack, the largest self-reported group is White at 97.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.8%) and Two or More Races (0.9%). These figures come from the 2020 Census Bureau surname tables, based on how respondents described their own race and ethnicity.
Which group reports this surname most often?
White is the largest self-reported group for the surname Keroack in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.2% (106 people in the source table).
What is the full ancestry breakdown?
Keroack appears across multiple self-reported groups in the Census data. The largest shares in the 2020 file are White (97.2%), Hispanic (1.8%), Two or More Races (0.9%). For 2020, the source file also published raw headcounts for each group, which is why this page can show both percentages and counts in the ancestry section.
Is this page using the latest Census data?
Yes. This page is using the latest surname file currently loaded on Name Census, which is 2020. The historical section above also keeps any older Census surname entries we have for Keroack (2000, 2010, 2020).
Does the Census include every surname?
No. The Census Bureau only publishes surnames that appeared at least 100 times in a given decennial Census. That means very rare surnames are excluded entirely, and a surname can appear in one Census release but disappear from a later one if it falls below the reporting threshold.
Why don't the ancestry percentages always add up to exactly 100%?
There are two main reasons: rounding and suppression. The Census Bureau rounds published values, and it may suppress very small cells to protect privacy. For 2020, the Bureau also published raw group counts rather than direct percentages, so Name Census converts those counts back into shares for comparability across census years.
What does Keroack mean?
A toponymic surname referring to someone from the town of Kerowak in France. The fuller origin note on this page goes into more detail.
Where does the surname data come from?
All surname statistics on Name Census are drawn from the US Census Bureau's decennial surname frequency tables. These files list every surname that appeared 100 or more times in the 2020 Census, along with a count, a per-100,000 rate, and a self-reported demographic breakdown. You can read the full explanation on our methodology page.
How does Name Census estimate living bearers?
For surnames, Name Census does not age cohorts the way it does for first names. Instead, it takes the Census Bureau's published frequency for Keroack (0.04 per 100,000) and applies that rate to the current U.S. resident population to estimate how many living Americans have the surname today.
How many people have the surname Keroack?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.