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

Kurka, 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 Kurka surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kurka in America

Kurka is the 48717th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kurka surname appeared 433 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 Kurka.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kurka 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 Kurka

The surname Kurka has its origins in Poland, first appearing in historical records from the 14th century. It is derived from the Polish word "kurka" meaning "hen" or "pullet". This likely indicated an early bearer of the name was associated with the keeping or trading of poultry.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name appears in the Polish town of Brzeziny in 1387, referring to a landowner named Jan Kurka. The name also appears in various Medieval Latin manuscripts from the region during this period.

By the 16th century, variations of the spelling had emerged, such as Kurko and Kurkow. These were found in tax records and property deeds across central Poland. One notable example is Jakub Kurka, a merchant from Krakow born around 1510.

The name spread more widely in the following centuries as families migrated and settled in other areas of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A prominent figure was Karol Kurka, born in 1682 in Lviv, who served as a military officer under King Jan III Sobieski.

Elsewhere in Europe, the name appeared among Polish emigrants and their descendants. For instance, Johann Kurka was a soldier in the Austrian Imperial Army, born in Bohemia in 1769. And in 1821, the Polish-born artist Kazimierz Kurka exhibited works in London after fleeing the November Uprising against Russia.

Other bearers of the Kurka surname in history include Stanislaw Kurka (1857-1935), a Polish linguist who researched Slavic languages, and Karol Kurka (1910-1996), a Polish general who fought against the Nazi invasion in 1939 before being imprisoned in Auschwitz.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kurka

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

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

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

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