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

Nafe, 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 Nafe surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Nafe in America

Nafe is the 60960th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Nafe surname appeared 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 Nafe.

We can also compare 2010 data for Nafe 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 Nafe

The surname NAFE is believed to have originated in Germany, with the earliest known records dating back to the 16th century. It is thought to be derived from the Old German word "nave," which means "navel" or "hub." This could indicate that the name was initially given to someone who lived near the center of a town or village.

One of the first recorded instances of the name NAFE appears in a document from the town of Wittenberg in 1542, where a certain Johannes Nafe is mentioned as a merchant. Another early reference is found in a church register from the city of Nuremberg in 1587, which lists the birth of a child named Anna Nafe.

In the 17th century, the name NAFE seems to have spread to other parts of Germany, as well as neighboring regions such as Austria and Switzerland. A notable bearer of the name from this period was Johann Christoph Nafe (1635-1712), a Protestant theologian and author from the city of Tübingen.

The 18th century saw the NAFE name appear in various records across German-speaking lands. For example, a Johann Michael Nafe (1715-1788) was a prominent physician and professor of medicine at the University of Leipzig. Another bearer of the name was Johann Samuel Nafe (1749-1818), a Lutheran pastor and writer from the town of Eisfeld.

As the 19th century dawned, the NAFE surname continued to be found in various parts of Germany and neighboring countries. One notable figure was Carl Friedrich Philipp von Nafe (1786-1859), a Prussian jurist and legal scholar who served as the president of the Prussian Supreme Court.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, several individuals with the NAFE surname made their mark in various fields. These include Wilhelm Nafe (1822-1903), a German architect and urban planner; Emil Nafe (1859-1942), a Swiss-born American physicist and inventor; and Max Nafe (1885-1959), a German-born American engineer and pioneer in the field of automotive safety.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Nafe

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

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

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

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