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

Lorentzen, 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 Lorentzen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Lorentzen in America

Lorentzen is the 20088th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Lorentzen surname appeared 1,330 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 Lorentzen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Lorentzen 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 Lorentzen

The surname Lorentzen originated in Norway and Denmark during the Middle Ages. It is a patronymic surname, meaning it was derived from the given name of the father or an ancestor. In this case, Lorentzen is a variation of the name Lorenz, which is the Scandinavian form of Laurentius, a Late Latin name derived from the Roman family name Laurentius.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Lorentzen date back to the 13th century in Norway. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Lorentz Eriksson, a Norwegian landowner who lived in the late 13th century. Records from this period often show variations in spelling, such as Lorentzsen, Laurentzen, and Lauridsen.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Lorentzen surname began to appear in various historical records and documents across Scandinavia. In Denmark, the name was recorded in the parish records of Ribe, where a family of Lorentzen merchants and traders lived in the 16th century.

In Norway, the Lorentzen name has been associated with several notable figures throughout history. One of the most prominent was Peder Lorentzen Tordenskiold (1691-1720), a celebrated naval officer and hero of the Great Northern War. Another was Hans Lorentzen (1784-1853), a Norwegian politician and jurist who served as the Minister of Justice and the Police for Norway.

Other notable individuals with the Lorentzen surname include Søren Lorentzen (1718-1791), a Danish merchant and shipowner; Johan Lorentzen (1763-1835), a Norwegian priest and author; and Kristian Lorentzen (1817-1905), a Norwegian historian and archivist.

The name Lorentzen has also been associated with various place names and locations, particularly in Norway. For example, the farm Lorentzen Gård in Telemark, Norway, dates back to the 16th century and was likely named after an early bearer of the surname.

While the Lorentzen surname is most commonly found in Norway and Denmark, it has also been carried by individuals in other parts of Scandinavia, as well as in areas with significant Norwegian and Danish immigration, such as the United States and Canada.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Lorentzen

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

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

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

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