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

Kiester, 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 Kiester surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kiester in America

Kiester is the 38850th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kiester surname appeared 568 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 Kiester.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kiester 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 Kiester

The surname Kiester is of German origin, originating in the central region of the country during the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Middle High German word "kiste," meaning "chest" or "box." This occupational surname likely referred to a maker or seller of chests or boxes.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Cologne archives from the 14th century, where a certain Heinrich Kiester is mentioned as a resident of the city in 1372. The name also appears in various other German records from the 15th and 16th centuries, often with slight variations in spelling, such as Kister or Kyster.

In the 17th century, the name Kiester can be found in the records of the German settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, one of the earliest German communities in colonial America. Johannes Kiester, born in 1662, is recorded as one of the original settlers of Germantown in 1683.

Notable individuals with the surname Kiester throughout history include Johann Kiester (1777-1838), a German theologian and author who wrote extensively on Christian ethics and moral philosophy. Another prominent figure was Friedrich Wilhelm Kiester (1799-1877), a German jurist and legal scholar who served as a judge in the Prussian court system.

In the 19th century, Heinrich Kiester (1815-1878) was a German-American farmer and politician who served in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the town of Mequon. Across the Atlantic, August Kiester (1825-1908) was a German businessman and industrialist who founded the Kiester Spinning Mills in Chemnitz, Saxony, a major textile manufacturing center.

One of the earliest notable Americans with the surname was Reverend Joseph Kiester (1821-1897), a prominent Lutheran minister and educator who served as the first president of Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, from 1845 to 1849.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kiester

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

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

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

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