Kobus last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Kobus

A Dutch surname derived from the personal name Jacob.

Kobus, 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 Kobus surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kobus in America

Kobus is the 21625th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kobus surname appeared 1,206 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 Kobus.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kobus 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 21625 21156 2.19%
Count 1,206 1,156 4.23%
Proportion per 100k 0.41 0.43 -4.76%

The history of the last name Kobus

The surname KOBUS originates from the Netherlands, where it first emerged in the late 16th century. It is derived from the Dutch word "kobus," which means "small hut" or "cottage." This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived in a small dwelling or was associated with such a structure.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname KOBUS can be found in the Dutch archives of Leiden, dating back to 1598. In these records, a man named Pieter Pietersz Kobus is mentioned as a resident of the city. This indicates that the name was already in use in Holland during the late Renaissance period.

The KOBUS surname appears to have been particularly prevalent in the provinces of Zuid-Holland and Utrecht in the Netherlands. Some of the earliest known bearers of the name include Claes Jansz Kobus, who was born in Rotterdam around 1620, and Dirck Jacobsz Kobus, a resident of Utrecht in the mid-17th century.

In the late 17th century, the KOBUS name made its way to South Africa with the arrival of Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony. One of the earliest recorded KOBUS individuals in South Africa was Jan Jacobsz Kobus, who was born in the Netherlands in 1670 and later immigrated to the Cape.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the KOBUS surname continued to be found in various parts of the Netherlands and South Africa. Notable individuals with this last name include Pieter Kobus (1784-1858), a Dutch painter and artist from Amsterdam, and Johannes Kobus (1808-1892), a South African farmer and landowner in the Eastern Cape region.

Other historical figures bearing the KOBUS surname include Jan Kobus (1780-1854), a Dutch politician and member of the States-General, and Hendrik Kobus (1892-1957), a South African rugby union player who represented the national team in the early 20th century.

While the KOBUS name has its roots in the Netherlands, it has since spread to other parts of the world, particularly through Dutch emigration and the diaspora of South African descendants. However, its origins can be traced back to the modest "kobus" or cottage dwellings of 16th-century Holland.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kobus

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

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 Kobus was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.44% 1,151
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.66% 8
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.24% 15
Hispanic Origin 1.82% 22

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

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.44% 96.54% -1.15%
Black 0.66% 0.69% -4.44%
Asian and Pacific Islander (S)% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 1.24% 0.78% 45.54%
Hispanic 1.82% 1.64% 10.40%

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

"Kobus last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/kobus-surname-popularity/.

"Kobus last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/kobus-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 December, 2024

Kobus last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/kobus-surname-popularity/.

Search for a name

Search for a first or last name to learn more about its origin, meaning, and more.

Simple as that.