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

Poulin, 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 Poulin surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Poulin in America

Poulin is the 5081st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Poulin surname appeared 6,892 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Poulin.

We can also compare 2010 data for Poulin 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 Poulin

The surname Poulin originates from France and is believed to have derived from the Old French word "poulain," meaning a colt or a young horse. This suggests that the name may have been initially associated with individuals who worked with horses or lived near a place where horses were bred or kept.

The earliest recorded instances of the Poulin surname can be traced back to the 12th century in regions of northern France, such as Normandy and Brittany. Some of the oldest spellings of the name include Poulain, Poulen, and Poullen, reflecting the variations in pronunciation and orthography common during that era.

One of the earliest known references to the name Poulin can be found in the Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Bertin, a 12th-century manuscript from the Saint-Bertin Abbey in Saint-Omer, France. This document mentions a person named Radulfus Poulain in the year 1145.

In the 13th century, the name appears in the records of the Duchy of Normandy, with mentions of individuals like Guillelmus Poulain (1235) and Johannes Poulain (1278). These records suggest that the name was well-established in the region during this period.

One notable bearer of the Poulin surname was Jacques Poulin, a French poet and writer who lived from 1540 to 1592. He is known for his work "Les Delices de la Poesie Françoise," published in 1584.

Another prominent figure was François Poulin de Francheville, a French naval officer and explorer who lived from 1691 to 1769. He commanded several expeditions to the West Indies and played a significant role in the colonization efforts of the French in the Caribbean.

In the 17th century, the Poulin surname began to appear in the records of New France (present-day Canada), indicating that some individuals with this name had migrated to the colonies. One such example is Pierre Poulin, who was born in France around 1650 and settled in Quebec, where he married and started a family.

Jean-Baptiste Poulin, born in 1733 in Quebec, was a prominent figure in the development of the fur trade in Canada. He established trading posts and forged relationships with various Indigenous communities, contributing significantly to the expansion of the fur trade industry in the region.

As the Poulin surname spread across different regions, it also evolved into various spelling variations, such as Paulin, Poulain, and Poullin, reflecting the influence of local dialects and pronunciation patterns.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Poulin

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!