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

Loper, 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 Loper surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Loper in America

Loper is the 4467th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Loper surname appeared 7,950 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname Loper.

We can also compare 2010 data for Loper 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 Loper

The surname Loper is of Dutch origin, deriving from the Middle Dutch word "loper," meaning "runner" or "messenger." This occupation-based surname was likely first given to individuals who worked as couriers or messengers in the Netherlands during the Middle Ages.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Loper surname can be found in the Dutch province of Friesland, where a certain Pieter Loper was mentioned in a legal document from 1487. The name also appeared in various town records across the Netherlands during the 16th and 17th centuries, with spellings sometimes varying between Loper, Looper, and Looper.

In the mid-17th century, a notable figure named Jacobus Loper (1623-1670) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his genre scenes and portraits. He was born in Amsterdam and worked primarily in that city, where his works can still be found in museums today.

As the Dutch established colonies in the Americas, the Loper surname began to appear in colonial records. One of the earliest instances was Pieter Loper, who arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) in 1654 from the Netherlands.

Another notable individual with this surname was Hendrik Loper (1791-1869), a Dutch military officer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) from 1856 to 1861.

In the United Kingdom, the Loper surname can be traced back to the late 16th century, possibly derived from the Dutch immigrants who settled in England during that period. One of the earliest records is that of William Loper, who was born in London in 1598.

Over the centuries, the Loper surname has been carried by various individuals across different fields, including Pieter Loper (1732-1799), a Dutch businessman and politician who served as the Mayor of Rotterdam from 1786 to 1795, and Johan Loper (1865-1936), a Norwegian-born American artist known for his landscape paintings.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Loper

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

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

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

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