Pustilnik last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Pustilnik

A Russian habitational surname derived from the word "pustyn'" meaning "wilderness" or "hermit".

Pustilnik, 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 Pustilnik surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Pustilnik in America

Pustilnik is the 116829th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Pustilnik surname appeared 149 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 Pustilnik.

We can also compare 2010 data for Pustilnik 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.

20102000Change (%)
Rank116829127948-9.09%
Count14912319.12%
Proportion per 100k0.050.050.00%

The history of the last name Pustilnik

The surname Pustilnik is of Russian origin, derived from the Russian word "pustyn'" meaning "desert" or "wilderness". It is believed to have originated in the 14th or 15th century, when it was used to refer to someone who lived in a remote or isolated area, such as a hermit or a monk living in a wilderness or desert.

One of the earliest known references to the name can be found in the Voskresenskaya Letopis (The Resurrection Chronicle), a 16th-century Russian chronicle that mentions a certain Pustilnikov living in the Solovetsky Monastery in the late 15th century.

In the 17th century, the name appears in various Russian historical documents and records, such as the census of 1678, which lists several families with the surname Pustilnik living in the Moscow region.

The name was also associated with several notable figures throughout history. One of the earliest was Andrei Pustilnik (c. 1330-1390), a Russian Orthodox monk and ascetic who lived in seclusion in the forests of Novgorod. He was revered for his piety and is considered a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Another notable bearer of the name was Ivan Pustilnik (1793-1856), a Russian writer and philosopher who advocated for the simplification of the Russian language and the adoption of a more phonetic alphabet.

In the 19th century, the surname Pustilnik was also associated with the Russian nobility. One example is Nikolai Pustilnik (1820-1892), a wealthy landowner and philanthropist from the Tver region, who funded the construction of several churches and schools in his area.

The name Pustilnik can also be found in historical records related to place names. For instance, there was a village called Pustilnikovo in the Kaluga region of Russia, which likely derived its name from an early settler with the surname Pustilnik.

Other notable bearers of the surname include Yuri Pustilnik (1906-1989), a Soviet scientist and engineer who made significant contributions to the development of rocket technology, and Andrei Pustilnik (b. 1965), a contemporary Russian artist and sculptor known for his abstract and surrealist works.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Pustilnik

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

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 Pustilnik was:

Race/EthnicityPercentageTotal Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only97.99%146
Non-Hispanic Black Only0.00%0
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only(S)%(S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native0.00%0
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races(S)%(S)
Hispanic Origin(S)%(S)

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 Pustilnik has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

20102000Change (%)
White97.99%98.37%-0.39%
Black0.00%0.00%0.00%
Asian and Pacific Islander(S)%(S)%(S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native0.00%0.00%0.00%
Two or More Races(S)%0.00%(S)%
Hispanic(S)%(S)%(S)%

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

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

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