Rabin last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Rabin

A Jewish occupational surname referring to a rabbi or teacher of Jewish law and tradition.

Rabin, 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 Rabin surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rabin in America

Rabin is the 13967th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rabin surname appeared 2,159 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Rabin.

We can also compare 2010 data for Rabin 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.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 13967 13985 -0.13%
Count 2,159 1,980 8.65%
Proportion per 100k 0.73 0.73 0.00%

The history of the last name Rabin

The surname Rabin originated in the Jewish communities of Eastern and Central Europe, particularly in areas that are now part of Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. The name is derived from the Hebrew word "rav," meaning "great" or "teacher," and often referred to a respected rabbi or scholar.

The earliest recorded instances of the Rabin surname can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Jewish communities in these regions were establishing themselves and keeping records of births, marriages, and deaths. Some of the earliest known bearers of the name include Rabbi Yitzchak Rabin, a prominent scholar in Krakow, Poland, in the late 16th century, and Rabbi Moshe Rabin, a respected rabbi in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in the early 17th century.

Over the centuries, the Rabin surname has been associated with a number of notable figures in Jewish history and culture. One of the most famous was Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995), an Israeli military leader and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Israel from 1974 to 1977 and again from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. He played a pivotal role in the Oslo Accords, a landmark peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

Another prominent bearer of the Rabin surname was Chaim Rabin (1915-1996), a renowned Israeli author and literary critic who wrote extensively on Hebrew literature and Jewish culture. He was a professor of Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize in 1984.

In the field of science, Solomon Rabin (1919-2003) was a distinguished American mathematician and computer scientist who made significant contributions to the fields of cryptography and coding theory. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1976.

Historically, the Rabin surname has also been associated with various places and regions where Jewish communities thrived. For example, the town of Rabin (or Rabyn) in Belarus was once home to a significant Jewish population, and the name may have originated or been influenced by this location.

It is worth noting that while the Rabin surname is primarily associated with Jewish communities in Eastern and Central Europe, it has since spread to other parts of the world through migration and diaspora, with bearers of the name now found in countries such as Israel, the United States, and various European nations.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rabin

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

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 Rabin was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 91.80% 1,982
Non-Hispanic Black Only 1.85% 40
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 1.67% 36
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.23% 5
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 0.93% 20
Hispanic Origin 3.52% 76

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

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 91.80% 93.33% -1.65%
Black 1.85% 1.82% 1.63%
Asian and Pacific Islander 1.67% (S)% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.23% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 0.93% 1.62% -54.12%
Hispanic 3.52% 1.82% 63.67%

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

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

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"Rabin last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 3, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/rabin-surname-popularity/.

"Rabin last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/rabin-surname-popularity/. Accessed 3 November, 2024

Rabin last name popularity, history, and meaning. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/last-names/rabin-surname-popularity/.

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