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

Petrowski, 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 Petrowski surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Petrowski in America

Petrowski is the 24137th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Petrowski surname appeared 1,042 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 Petrowski.

We can also compare 2010 data for Petrowski 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 Petrowski

The surname Petrowski originates from Poland, emerging in the late 15th century. It is derived from the Slavic personal name Piotr, which is the Polish form of Peter, meaning "rock" or "stone." The suffix "-owski" indicates a possessive or belonging to a particular place or person.

Petrowski is believed to have first appeared in historical records from the region of Masovia, a former principality in east-central Poland. Early mentions of the name can be found in parish registers and tax rolls from towns like Warsaw and Płock.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with the surname Petrowski was Jan Petrowski, a landowner from the village of Wola Radzymińska, who lived around 1520. Another notable figure was Marcin Petrowski, a merchant and alderman in the city of Kraków in the late 16th century.

The name Petrowski can also be traced back to the village of Petrowice (formerly known as Petrowice Małe) in Lower Silesia, a region that was historically part of Poland but is now located in southwestern Poland. Records from the 16th and 17th centuries show Petrowski families residing in this area.

In the 18th century, a prominent individual with the surname was Stanisław Petrowski (1700-1768), a Polish nobleman and military officer who served as a general in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth army.

Another notable bearer of the name was Józef Petrowski (1767-1842), a Polish composer and music teacher who was active in Warsaw during the early 19th century.

During the 19th century, the surname Petrowski started to spread beyond Poland as many Polish families emigrated to other parts of Europe and the Americas. One example is Aleksander Petrowski (1843-1916), a Polish-American civil engineer and architect who designed several notable buildings in Chicago.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Petrowski

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

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

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

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