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

Lafortune, 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 Lafortune surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Lafortune in America

Lafortune is the 17789th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Lafortune surname appeared 1,574 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Lafortune.

We can also compare 2010 data for Lafortune 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 Lafortune

The surname LAFORTUNE is of French origin, derived from the French phrase "la fortune" meaning "the fortune" or "the luck." It is likely that the name originated in France during the Middle Ages, possibly as a descriptive surname given to someone considered fortunate or lucky.

The earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to the 13th century in the Normandy region of northern France. In 1274, a document from the town of Rouen mentions a Jean de la Fortune, suggesting the name was already in use at that time. Similar spellings such as Lafortune, La Fortune, and De la Fortune were also found in historical records from various parts of France during the 13th and 14th centuries.

In the late 15th century, the name appears in the records of the city of Paris, where a certain Guillaume La Fortune was recorded as a merchant in 1487. This suggests that the name had spread from its Norman roots to other parts of France by that time.

One notable early bearer of the name was François de La Fortune, a French explorer and navigator who was born in Saint-Malo, Brittany, around 1530. He is best known for his expeditions to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Maritimes region of Canada in the mid-16th century.

Another historically significant figure with the surname LAFORTUNE was Jean-Baptiste de La Fortune, a French military officer and colonial administrator who lived from 1670 to 1745. He served as the Governor of French Guiana from 1718 to 1723 and played a crucial role in the early colonization efforts of France in South America.

In the 18th century, the name appears in the records of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti), where a plantation owner named Pierre LAFORTUNE is documented as having owned a sizable estate in the 1760s.

Moving into the 19th century, a notable bearer of the name was Louis-Joseph LAFORTUNE, a French-Canadian lawyer and politician who was born in Quebec in 1811. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada and was a vocal advocate for the rights of French-Canadians.

While the name LAFORTUNE is predominantly associated with France and French-speaking regions, it has also been found in other parts of Europe and the Americas, likely due to migration and intermarriage over the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Lafortune

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Lafortune, 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!