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

Olesh, 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 Olesh surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Olesh in America

Olesh is the 61123rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Olesh surname appeared 329 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 Olesh.

We can also compare 2010 data for Olesh 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 Olesh

The surname Olesh has its origins in the Slavic regions of Eastern Europe, likely emerging around the 13th or 14th century. It is derived from the personal name Oleg, which has its roots in the Old Norse name Åleifr, meaning "ancestor's descendant" or "progenitor."

The earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in historical records from the Kievan Rus', an early medieval East Slavic state that flourished from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. One notable example is Oleg Svyatoslavich, a prince of the Drevlian tribe, who lived in the late 10th century and is mentioned in the medieval Russian chronicle, the Primary Chronicle.

As the name spread across Eastern Europe, it evolved into various spellings and forms, including Oleshchuk, Olechko, and Oleszczuk, reflecting regional linguistic influences. Some of these variations can be found in historical documents from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which encompassed large swaths of modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland from the 16th to the 18th century.

While not as widely documented as some other surnames, the Olesh name has appeared in various historical records throughout the centuries. One notable figure was Ivan Oleshchenko, a Cossack leader from the 17th century who played a role in the Khmelnytsky Uprising against Polish rule in Ukraine.

Another individual bearing the Olesh surname was Yuriy Olesh, a Ukrainian writer and journalist who lived from 1899 to 1960 and was known for his satirical works and contributions to the development of Ukrainian literature.

In the realm of academia, Andrey Olesh, a Russian mathematician born in 1939, made significant contributions to the field of functional analysis and was recognized for his work on unconditional bases in Banach spaces.

Historically, the Olesh surname was also found in parts of Belarus, where Alyaksey Olesh, a Belarusian writer and poet who lived from 1921 to 1994, gained recognition for his works that explored themes of village life and the Belarusian countryside.

While not as widespread as some other surnames, the Olesh name has a rich history that spans various regions of Eastern Europe, reflecting the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Slavic peoples.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Olesh

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

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

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

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