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

Kushnir, 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 Kushnir surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Kushnir in America

Kushnir is the 24736th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Kushnir surname appeared 1,008 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 Kushnir.

We can also compare 2010 data for Kushnir 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 Kushnir

The surname Kushnir has its origins in Eastern Europe, specifically in Ukraine and parts of Russia. It is believed to have derived from the Ukrainian word "kushnir," which means "furrier" or someone who works with animal fur. This suggests that the name was likely associated with a trade or occupation in the distant past.

The earliest recorded instances of the surname Kushnir can be traced back to the 16th century in various historical documents and records from the region. One notable example is the mention of a Kushnir family in the Cossack Registers of the Zaporozhian Sich, a semi-autonomous Cossack state that existed in the 16th to 18th centuries.

In the 17th century, the name Kushnir appeared in several church records and census documents from the Ukrainian regions of Poltava and Chernihiv. This indicates that the name was well-established and quite common among the local population during that time period.

Over the centuries, the surname Kushnir has been subject to various spellings and variations, including Kushnyr, Kushnyr, and Kushnir. These variations can often be attributed to regional dialects, transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet, or simple transcription errors.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with the surname Kushnir was Ivan Kushnir, a Cossack leader who participated in the Khmelnytsky Uprising against Polish rule in the mid-17th century. Another notable figure was Hryhoriy Kushnir, a Ukrainian writer and playwright who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

In the 19th century, Fedir Kushnir was a prominent Ukrainian artist known for his landscape paintings and depictions of rural life. Andrii Kushnir, born in 1890, was a Ukrainian composer and conductor who made significant contributions to the development of Ukrainian classical music.

One of the most famous individuals with the surname Kushnir in recent history was Yuri Kushnir, a Soviet and Russian film director and screenwriter who was born in 1936 and passed away in 2013. His works, such as the 1968 film "The Shooting Party," gained critical acclaim and solidified his place in the history of Russian cinema.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Kushnir

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

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

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

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