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

Pflug, 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 Pflug surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pflug in America

Pflug is the 23920th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pflug surname appeared 1,055 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 Pflug.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pflug 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 Pflug

The surname PFLUG is of German origin, derived from the Old German word "pfluog" which means "plow." It originated in the medieval period, likely around the 12th or 13th century, and was initially used as an occupational surname for someone who worked as a plowman or farmer.

The name PFLUG first appeared in various German regions, including Bavaria, Saxony, and areas along the Rhine River. It was also found in regions of modern-day Austria and Switzerland. Some early variants of the spelling included Pfluog, Pflueg, and Pfluegh.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name PFLUG can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, a collection of medieval documents from Saxony, dating back to the 13th century. The name is also mentioned in the Bairische Landtafeln, a Bavarian land registry from the late 13th century.

Notable individuals with the surname PFLUG throughout history include Johann Pflug (1481-1548), a German jurist and diplomat who served as the Bishop of Naumburg-Zeitz. Another notable bearer of the name was Julius von Pflug (1499-1564), a German lawyer and humanist scholar.

In the 16th century, a family of Pflug or Pflug von Rabenstein held significant influence in the region of Saxony-Anhalt. Heinrich Pflug von Rabenstein (1520-1585) was a Saxon nobleman and member of the Fruitbearing Society, a prominent literary society of the time.

Moving into the 18th century, Johann Baptist von Pflug (1785-1866) was an Austrian jurist and politician who served as the Minister of Justice for the Austrian Empire.

Another notable figure was the German sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857), whose mother's maiden name was Pflug. Rauch is renowned for his neoclassical sculptures, including the famous statue of Queen Luise of Prussia.

While the surname PFLUG is more commonly found in German-speaking regions, it has also spread to other parts of Europe and beyond through migration and diaspora communities over the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pflug

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

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

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

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