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

Ouellet, 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 Ouellet surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Ouellet in America

Ouellet is the 27110th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Ouellet surname appeared 893 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 Ouellet.

We can also compare 2010 data for Ouellet 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 Ouellet

The surname Ouellet originated in France and is derived from the Old French word "oulette," which means "a small owl." The name likely referred to someone with a bird-like or owl-like appearance or mannerisms.

The earliest known record of the name dates back to the 14th century in the Normandy region of France. It is believed to have first appeared in written form in the census records of the village of Évreux.

In the 16th century, the name Ouellet began to spread across France, with notable individuals bearing the surname including Jacques Ouellet, a merchant from Rouen who was born in 1532 and died in 1607.

As French settlers began to explore and colonize the New World, the name Ouellet was carried across the Atlantic to present-day Canada. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in North America was that of René Ouellet, a farmer who arrived in Quebec in 1659 from the town of Marly-la-Ville in the Île-de-France region of France.

In the 18th century, the Ouellet family established roots in various parts of Quebec, with some branches settling in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region. A notable figure from this era was Louis Ouellet, a merchant and landowner born in 1721 in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ouellet name continued to spread across Canada, with individuals bearing the surname playing important roles in various fields. For example, Jean-Baptiste Ouellet (1853-1932) was a prominent politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.

Other notable individuals with the surname Ouellet include Rémi Ouellet (1884-1959), a Canadian artist known for his landscape paintings, and Fernand Ouellet (1925-2016), a renowned historian and academic who specialized in the study of New France and French-Canadian history.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Ouellet

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

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

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

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