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

Lemke, 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 Lemke surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Lemke in America

Lemke is the 3406th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Lemke surname appeared 10,501 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 Lemke.

We can also compare 2010 data for Lemke 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 Lemke

The surname Lemke has its origins in Germany, where it first emerged during the medieval period. It is believed to have derived from the Germanic word "lembeki," which means "lime tree." This suggests that the name may have been initially bestowed upon someone who lived near or worked with lime trees.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Lemke surname can be found in the Bременник, a 14th-century Russian chronicle, where a merchant named Heinrich Lemke is mentioned in an entry from 1382. This indicates that the name had already spread beyond the borders of Germany by that time.

In the 16th century, the name appears in various records and documents across central and northern Europe. For example, in 1542, a man named Joachim Lemke is listed as a resident of the town of Aschersleben in present-day Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

Over the centuries, the Lemke surname has been associated with several notable individuals. One such person was Christoph Lemke (1589-1659), a German composer and organist who served as the court Kapellmeister in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony.

Another prominent figure was Johann Gottfried Lemke (1717-1801), a German theologian and educator who served as the rector of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he taught notable figures like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

In the 19th century, Carl Lemke (1837-1904) gained recognition as a German landscape painter known for his depictions of the North German countryside and coastlines.

The surname Lemke has also been associated with various place names and their older spellings. For instance, the village of Lemkendorf in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, is believed to have derived its name from the Lemke surname.

While the Lemke name has its roots in Germany, it has since spread to other parts of the world, particularly through emigration. Some notable individuals with this surname include Gustav Lemke (1801-1884), a German-American artist and lithographer who settled in New York City; and Kurt Lemke (1929-2013), a German politician who served as a member of the Bundestag, the German federal parliament.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Lemke

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

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

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

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