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

Minkoff, 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 Minkoff surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Minkoff in America

Minkoff is the 35147th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Minkoff surname appeared 641 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 Minkoff.

We can also compare 2010 data for Minkoff 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 Minkoff

The surname Minkoff has its origins in Eastern Europe, tracing its roots back to areas of modern-day Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine. It is believed to have emerged during the late 16th or early 17th century. The name is derived from the Yiddish word "mink," which refers to the small furry animal of the weasel family, and the suffix "-off," which is a common Slavic patronymic ending indicating lineage or descent.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Minkoff name can be found in the Metryka Litewska, a collection of administrative documents from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, dating back to the late 16th century. In these records, the name is spelled as "Minkow" or "Minkov," reflecting the variations in spelling and pronunciation common during that time.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Minkoff name gained prominence in various parts of Eastern Europe, particularly in the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine. Notable individuals bearing this surname include Shmuel Minkoff (1635-1697), a respected rabbi and scholar from Lublin, Poland, and Yitzhak Minkoff (1718-1783), a prominent merchant and philanthropist from Lviv, Ukraine.

As the Minkoff family spread across Eastern Europe, various branches emerged with slight variations in the spelling of the surname, such as Minkof, Minkovski, and Minkovsky. One notable figure from this period was Avraham Minkovski (1784-1858), a renowned Talmudic scholar and author from Vilnius, Lithuania.

In the 19th century, many Minkoff families emigrated from Eastern Europe to various parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, and countries in Western Europe. One of the earliest recorded Minkoff immigrants to the United States was Yakov Minkoff, who arrived in New York City in 1884 from Odessa, Ukraine.

Throughout the 20th century, the Minkoff surname continued to gain recognition, with several notable individuals making their mark in various fields. These include:

1. David Minkoff (1899-1974), an American lawyer and civil rights activist.
2. Rebecca Minkoff (born 1981), an American fashion designer and entrepreneur.
3. Nikolai Minkoff (1894-1967), a Russian-born American artist and painter.
4. Mikhail Minkoff (1921-1998), a Soviet-born American chemist and inventor.
5. Andrei Minkoff (born 1963), a Russian-born American chess grandmaster.

While the Minkoff surname has undergone various spelling variations over the centuries, its roots can be traced back to the Eastern European regions of Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine, where it emerged as a patronymic name associated with the fur trade and the Yiddish word "mink."

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Minkoff

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!