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

Kuehn, 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 Kuehn surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kuehn in America

Kuehn is the 4905th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kuehn surname appeared 7,181 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Kuehn.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kuehn 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 Kuehn

The surname Kuehn originated in Germany, specifically in the regions of Saxony and Brandenburg. It first appeared in records dating back to the 13th century. The name is derived from the Old German word "kuene," which means "bold" or "brave." It was likely given as a descriptive name to someone with a courageous or daring personality.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Kuehn surname can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of medieval documents from Saxony, where a person named "Conradus Kuene" was mentioned in 1285. The name was also found in the Heidelberg Tax Records of 1391, where a "Heynrich Kuen" was listed as a resident.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name spread to other parts of Germany, and variations in spelling emerged, such as Kuhn, Kühn, and Kuehn. In the Württemberg Church Records of 1581, a "Hans Kuhn" was recorded as a father of twins.

Notable individuals with the surname Kuehn throughout history include Johann Kuhn (1698-1781), a prominent German astronomer and mathematician. He made significant contributions to the study of comets and was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Another notable figure was Friedrich Kuehn (1820-1885), a German philologist and educator who published works on Greek and Latin literature.

In the United States, one of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Kuehn can be traced back to Johann Adam Kuehn, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1752 from the Palatinate region of Germany. His descendants settled in various parts of the country, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois.

Other notable individuals with the surname Kuehn include Wilhelm Kuehn (1820-1887), a German-American architect who designed several significant buildings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the late 19th century. John Kuehn (1895-1971) was an American lawyer and judge who served as a justice on the Wyoming Supreme Court from 1953 to 1971.

The Kuehn surname has also been associated with various place names, such as Kuhnhausen, a village in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, and Kuhnsdorf, a municipality in Brandenburg, Germany. These place names likely derived from individuals with the Kuehn surname who once lived or owned land in those areas.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kuehn

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

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

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

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