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

Meland, 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 Meland surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Meland in America

Meland is the 31824th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Meland surname appeared 725 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 Meland.

We can also compare 2010 data for Meland 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 Meland

The surname Meland originates from Norway and dates back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Old Norse word "melr," meaning "sandy soil" or "sand dune," combined with the suffix "-land," meaning "land" or "territory." The name likely referred to someone who lived near or owned land with sandy soil or sand dunes.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Meland can be found in the Diplomatarium Norvegicum, a collection of medieval Norwegian documents from the 12th to the 16th centuries. An individual named Thorstein Meland is mentioned in a document dated 1340.

In the 15th century, the name appears in the Aslak Bolt's cadastre, a land register from Bergen, Norway. The cadastre lists several individuals with the surname Meland, indicating that the name was well-established in the region by that time.

Notable individuals with the surname Meland throughout history include:

1. Svend Meland (1818-1896), a Norwegian farmer and politician who served as a member of the Storting (Norwegian parliament) from 1868 to 1873.

2. Olav Meland (1856-1933), a Norwegian-American Lutheran minister and educator who founded Augsburg Seminary (now Augsburg University) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1869.

3. Halvor Meland (1874-1957), a Norwegian-American Lutheran minister and author, best known for his book "The Passing Protestantism and Coming Catholicism" (1917).

4. Gunnar Meland (1899-1978), a Norwegian painter and illustrator, known for his landscape paintings and illustrations for children's books.

5. Arne Meland (1904-1986), a Norwegian architect and urban planner who designed several notable buildings in Oslo, including the Oslo City Hall.

The name Meland has also been associated with various place names in Norway, such as Meland municipality in Vestland county, which likely derived its name from the sandy soil or sand dunes in the area.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Meland

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

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

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

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