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

Kirchoff, 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 Kirchoff surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kirchoff in America

Kirchoff is the 13682nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kirchoff surname appeared 2,213 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Kirchoff.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kirchoff 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 Kirchoff

The surname Kirchoff has its origins in Germany, with the earliest recorded instances dating back to the 16th century. It is a locational surname derived from the German words "kirche" meaning "church" and "hof" meaning "courtyard" or "farm." This suggests that the name likely referred to someone who lived near a church or worked on a church-owned property.

One of the earliest known records of the name Kirchoff can be found in the town of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany, where a family by the name of Kirchoff is mentioned in a local census from 1583. The name was also present in other regions of Germany, with variations in spelling such as Kirchhoff, Kirchhofer, and Kirchhoffer appearing in historical documents from different areas.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, several notable individuals bearing the surname Kirchoff emerged. One such figure was Johannes Kirchoff (1638-1689), a German theologian and author from Lübeck who wrote extensively on religious topics. Another was Johann Caspar Kirchoff (1700-1776), a German musician and composer from Altenburg who is credited with composing numerous sacred works and operas.

The name also gained prominence in the field of science with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887), a renowned German physicist who made significant contributions to the study of electrical circuits and spectroscopy. His work, particularly the Kirchhoff's laws of circuit analysis and his research on the continuous spectrum of black-body radiation, laid the foundation for modern physics and earned him widespread recognition.

In the realm of literature, the name is associated with the German writer and dramatist, Hermann Kirchoff (1839-1912), who was known for his historical plays and novels set in ancient Greece and Rome. His works, such as "Herakles" and "Die Töchter des Thespis," explored themes of heroism and the classical world.

Another notable figure was the German archaeologist and philologist, Adolf Kirchhoff (1826-1908), who made significant contributions to the study of ancient Greek inscriptions and was instrumental in deciphering and publishing various epigraphic texts from the Greek world.

While these are just a few examples, the surname Kirchoff has a rich history spanning several centuries and has been associated with individuals from diverse fields, including science, literature, music, and theology, among others.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kirchoff

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

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

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

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