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

Pelser, 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 Pelser surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pelser in America

Pelser is the 110825th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pelser surname appeared 159 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 Pelser.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pelser 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 Pelser

The surname Pelser has its origins in the Netherlands, with records dating back to the 16th century. It is believed to have derived from the Dutch word "pels," meaning "fur" or "pelt," suggesting that the name may have been associated with a furrier or someone involved in the fur trade.

One of the earliest recorded mentions of the Pelser name can be found in the archives of the city of Amsterdam, where a merchant named Jan Pelser was documented in 1572. This suggests that the name had already established itself in the region by the late 16th century.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Pelser name appeared in various Dutch records and documents, indicating that it had spread across the Netherlands. Some notable individuals from this period include Pieter Pelser, a renowned painter born in Haarlem in 1647, and Dirk Pelser, a merchant and ship owner from Rotterdam who lived between 1698 and 1768.

As the Dutch colonized parts of the world, the Pelser surname began to appear in regions such as South Africa and Indonesia. In South Africa, one of the earliest recorded instances of the name was Gerrit Pelser, a farmer who settled in the Cape Colony in the late 18th century.

Another significant figure was Johannes Pelser, a South African politician and member of the National Assembly, who was born in 1890 and played a prominent role in the country's political landscape during the mid-20th century.

Across the Atlantic, the Pelser name also found its way to North America. One notable individual was Abraham Pelser, a Dutch immigrant who settled in New York in the late 17th century and became a successful merchant and landowner.

In the 19th century, the Pelser surname continued to spread, with individuals bearing the name appearing in various parts of Europe and the Americas. One example is Pieter Pelser, a Dutch-born artist who immigrated to the United States in the 1850s and gained recognition for his landscape paintings.

Throughout its history, the Pelser surname has been associated with a diverse range of professions and backgrounds, from artists and merchants to politicians and farmers, reflecting the various paths taken by those who bore this name as they ventured across the globe.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pelser

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

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

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

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