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

Ostrom, 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 Ostrom surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Ostrom in America

Ostrom is the 9343rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Ostrom surname appeared 3,485 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 Ostrom.

We can also compare 2010 data for Ostrom 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 Ostrom

The surname Ostrom has its origins in Sweden and dates back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Old Norse words "aust" meaning east and "rum" meaning space, likely referring to someone who lived in the eastern regions of the country.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Södermanland County annals from 1277, where a man named Ostrom Eriksson is mentioned as a landowner. The name also appears in the Visby parish records on the island of Gotland in the 14th century.

During the Middle Ages, the name was sometimes spelled as "Ostrom" or "Östrom," reflecting the regional variations in dialects and spelling conventions at the time. There are records of an Ostrom family residing in the town of Västervik, located in the province of Småland, in the late 16th century.

In the 17th century, a notable figure named Johan Ostrom (1623-1691) was a respected merchant and ship owner in the city of Gothenburg. He played a significant role in the city's maritime trade and contributed to its economic growth during that period.

Another prominent individual with the surname Ostrom was Carl Gustaf Ostrom (1770-1846), a Swedish politician and jurist who served as the President of the Göta Court of Appeal in the early 19th century.

During the 19th century, the Ostrom name gained recognition through the work of Johan Ostrom (1813-1888), a Swedish botanist and plant collector who made significant contributions to the study of Scandinavian flora.

In more recent times, Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) was a renowned American political economist who received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009 for her groundbreaking research on the governance of common pool resources.

It is worth noting that while the surname Ostrom originated in Sweden, it has since spread to other parts of the world, particularly through immigration and migration patterns over the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Ostrom

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

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

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

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