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

Mukherjee, 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 Mukherjee surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Mukherjee in America

Mukherjee is the 12264th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Mukherjee surname appeared 2,536 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 Mukherjee.

We can also compare 2010 data for Mukherjee 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 Mukherjee

The surname Mukherjee is of Indian origin, specifically from the Bengal region of eastern India. It dates back several centuries and is derived from the Sanskrit words 'mukha' meaning 'face' and 'rij' meaning 'bright' or 'shining'. Thus, the name Mukherjee originally referred to someone with a bright or radiant face.

The name is believed to have originated among the Brahmin caste in Bengal, who were traditionally scholars, priests, and teachers. The earliest known records of the name Mukherjee can be found in ancient Hindu scriptures and manuscripts dating back to the 12th century AD.

One of the earliest known historical figures with the surname Mukherjee was Gauranga Mukherjee, a renowned Bengali poet and philosopher who lived in the 16th century. Another notable bearer of the name was Raja Ram Mohan Roy Mukherjee (1772-1833), a pioneering social reformer and a key figure in the Bengal Renaissance.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Mukherjee name gained prominence among the educated elite of Bengal. Prominent Mukherjees from this period include Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Mukherjee (1820-1891), a scholar, writer, and social reformer, and Rabindranath Tagore Mukherjee (1861-1941), the renowned poet, novelist, and the first non-European Nobel laureate in literature.

Other notable Mukherjees throughout history include Bidhubhushan Mukherjee (1888-1975), a renowned writer and literary critic, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (1901-1953), a prominent politician and the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a precursor to the modern-day Bharatiya Janata Party.

The name Mukherjee has also been associated with various place names in Bengal, such as Mukherjeepara and Mukherjeenagar, which were likely named after individuals or families with the surname Mukherjee.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Mukherjee

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Mukherjee, 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!