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

Pierre, 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 Pierre surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pierre in America

Pierre is the 1026th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pierre surname appeared 33,913 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 12 people would have the surname Pierre.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pierre 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 Pierre

The surname Pierre has its origins in France and is derived from the Old French word "pierre," meaning "stone" or "rock." This surname was likely given to someone who lived near a prominent rock formation or who worked as a stonemason or quarryman.

The name can be traced back to the Medieval period in France, with some of the earliest recorded instances appearing in the 12th and 13th centuries. For example, records from the Abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris mention a "Petrus Petri" (Peter Pierre) in 1173.

In the 13th century, the surname Pierre appeared in the famous Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This suggests that individuals with the surname Pierre may have traveled from France to England during the Norman Conquest.

One of the earliest known bearers of the surname Pierre was Jean Pierre, a French nobleman who lived in the 14th century. He was a prominent figure in the court of King Charles V of France and served as the Grand Chamberlain of France.

Another notable individual with the surname Pierre was François Pierre, a French architect and engineer who lived from 1616 to 1703. He is best known for his work on the Palace of Versailles and the Church of the Invalides in Paris.

In the 19th century, Isidore Pierre was a renowned French sculptor who created works such as the statue of Napoleon I in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum. He lived from 1805 to 1886.

Jean-Baptiste Pierre, born in 1833 and died in 1905, was a French painter known for his landscapes and portraits. He was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and received numerous awards for his work.

Pierre Curie, born in 1859 and died in 1906, was a French physicist and pioneer in the study of radioactivity. Along with his wife, Marie Curie, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their groundbreaking research on radioactivity.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pierre

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

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

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

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