Knoche last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Knoche

A German occupational surname derived from the word "Knochen" meaning bone, possibly referring to a bone worker or dealer.

Knoche, 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 Knoche surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Knoche in America

Knoche is the 27204th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Knoche surname appeared 889 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 Knoche.

We can also compare 2010 data for Knoche 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.

20102000Change (%)
Rank27204246159.99%
Count889951-6.74%
Proportion per 100k0.300.35-15.38%

The history of the last name Knoche

The surname KNOCHE has its origins in Germany, with records dating back to the 16th century. It is derived from the German word "Knoche," meaning "bone," and may have been an occupational name for someone who worked with bones, such as a butcher or a bone carver.

One of the earliest recorded references to the surname KNOCHE can be found in the town records of Nuremberg, where a Hans Knoche is mentioned in 1523. The name also appears in the parish registers of Saxony, where a Christoph Knoche was born in 1587 in the village of Großenhain.

In the 17th century, the KNOCHE surname spread across various regions of Germany, with notable individuals including Johannes Knoche (1625-1699), a Lutheran pastor in the town of Freiberg, and Heinrich Knoche (1670-1742), a renowned clockmaker from Nuremberg.

The 18th century saw the rise of several prominent figures bearing the KNOCHE surname. Johann Friedrich Knoche (1729-1804) was a German mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of celestial mechanics. His contemporary, Johann Georg Knoche (1748-1825), was a renowned botanist and professor at the University of Erlangen.

In the 19th century, the KNOCHE surname continued to be well-represented in various fields. Carl Knoche (1801-1875) was a German historian and archivist who served as the director of the Prussian State Archives in Berlin. Adolf Knoche (1856-1926) was a prominent German architect known for his work on public buildings in Berlin and other cities.

The 20th century saw the KNOCHE surname spread beyond Germany, with notable individuals such as Walter Knoche (1900-1977), a German-American artist and sculptor who lived and worked in New York City, and Manfred Knoche (1938-2020), a German philosopher and author who specialized in the work of Immanuel Kant.

Throughout its history, the surname KNOCHE has been associated with various place names and older spellings, such as Knoch, Knoch, and Knochel. While the name has been most prevalent in Germany, it has also been found in other parts of Europe and the Americas, reflecting the migration patterns of those bearing this surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Knoche

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

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 Knoche was:

Race/EthnicityPercentageTotal Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only96.51%858
Non-Hispanic Black Only(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races1.80%16
Hispanic Origin0.79%7

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 Knoche has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

20102000Change (%)
White96.51%96.64%-0.13%
Black(S)%(S)%(S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander(S)%0.63%(S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native(S)%(S)%(S)%
Two or More Races1.80%1.79%0.56%
Hispanic0.79%(S)%(S)%

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

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

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