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

Mellinger, 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 Mellinger surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Mellinger in America

Mellinger is the 8617th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Mellinger surname appeared 3,818 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 Mellinger.

We can also compare 2010 data for Mellinger 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 Mellinger

The surname Mellinger is of German origin, originating in the regions of Bavaria and Württemberg in southern Germany. It is thought to derive from the Old German word "mellin," meaning "to grind" or "to mill," suggesting that the name was likely originally an occupational surname for a miller.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Würzburg census records of 1497, where a Hans Mellinger is listed as a resident. Another early reference is found in the town records of Esslingen, Württemberg, where a Jakob Mellinger is mentioned in 1521.

The name appears to have spread throughout southern Germany and into neighboring regions in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1589, a Johannes Mellinger is recorded as a landowner in the village of Oberelsbach, near Würzburg. A few decades later, in 1632, a Georg Mellinger is mentioned in the parish records of Schwäbisch Hall, a town in what is now Baden-Württemberg.

As the name became more widespread, variations in spelling emerged, such as Mellinger, Mellenger, and Melinger. In the 18th century, a notable bearer of the name was Johann Caspar Mellinger (1706-1783), a German theologian and author who served as a professor at the University of Tübingen.

Another significant figure was Friedrich Mellinger (1827-1898), a German-born American brewer who founded the Mellinger Brewing Company in Philadelphia in 1857. His brewery played a significant role in the city's brewing industry during the late 19th century.

In more recent history, Karl Mellinger (1897-1983) was a German politician and member of the Nazi Party who served as the Gauleiter of Saxony from 1933 to 1945. He was convicted of war crimes after World War II and sentenced to prison.

While the name is most commonly associated with Germany, it has also spread to other parts of the world through emigration. For example, in the United States, one notable bearer was George Mellinger (1895-1966), a Major League Baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox in the 1920s.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Mellinger

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

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

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

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