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

Krebs, 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 Krebs surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Krebs in America

Krebs is the 3260th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Krebs surname appeared 11,067 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Krebs.

We can also compare 2010 data for Krebs 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 Krebs

The surname KREBS is of German origin, derived from the German word "Krebs" meaning crab or cancer. It likely originated as a descriptive nickname or occupational name for someone who worked with crabs or crayfish, or possibly as a reference to someone's crab-like gait or physical appearance.

The earliest recorded instances of the name date back to the 14th century in various regions of Germany. In 1375, a Johannes Krebs was mentioned in records from the city of Würzburg. The name also appears in the Bavarian town of Augsburg, where a Hanns Krebs was documented in 1402.

In the 15th century, the KREBS name can be found in the German state of Saxony, with a Conrad Krebs recorded in Leipzig in 1437. During this period, variations in spelling such as Krebß, Krebse, and Krebzer were also used.

One of the earliest notable individuals with the surname was Hans Krebs, a German composer and organist who lived from around 1490 to 1540. He served as the court organist for the Elector of Saxony in Dresden.

Another prominent figure was Johann Baptist Krebs, a German composer and organist who lived from 1713 to 1780. He was a student of Johann Sebastian Bach and is considered one of the most important representatives of the Bach tradition.

In the 19th century, the KREBS surname gained further recognition with Hans Adolf Krebs, a German-British physician and biochemist who lived from 1900 to 1981. He is best known for his discovery of the citric acid cycle, also known as the Krebs cycle, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1953.

Another notable individual was Hans Krebs, a German-American biochemist who lived from 1888 to 1947. He made significant contributions to the understanding of cellular metabolism and is known for his work on the urea cycle, which is sometimes referred to as the Krebs-Henseleit cycle.

The KREBS surname has also been associated with various places, such as the town of Krebshausen in the German state of Hesse, which likely derived its name from the presence of crayfish in the local waters.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Krebs

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

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

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

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