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

Rabkin, 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 Rabkin surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rabkin in America

Rabkin is the 53316th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rabkin surname appeared 388 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 Rabkin.

We can also compare 2010 data for Rabkin 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 Rabkin

The surname Rabkin is of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, originating from the Yiddish language spoken by Jews living in Central and Eastern Europe. It is believed to have derived from the Hebrew word "rav," meaning "rabbi" or "teacher." This suggests that the name was initially given as an occupational surname to those who were rabbis or served in religious teaching roles.

The earliest known records of the Rabkin surname date back to the early 18th century in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was home to a significant Jewish population at the time. One notable early mention is found in the 1765 census of the town of Grodno (now in Belarus), where the name is spelled "Rabkin."

In the 19th century, the Rabkin name began to spread across Eastern Europe as Jewish communities migrated westward. The name can be found in various spellings, such as Rabkin, Rabkyn, and Rabkin, reflecting regional variations in Yiddish pronunciation and transliteration into different alphabets.

One of the earliest recorded individuals with the Rabkin surname was Abraham Rabkin, a prominent Jewish scholar and rabbi who lived in the town of Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) in the late 18th century. Another notable figure was Yakov Rabkin (1827-1893), a Russian-born Jewish writer and journalist who advocated for Jewish emancipation and assimilation in the Russian Empire.

As the Jewish diaspora spread across Europe and beyond, the Rabkin name appeared in various communities. Isaac Rabkin (1909-1980) was a Ukrainian-born American writer and journalist who covered World War II and the Nuremberg Trials. Solomon Rabkin (1858-1916) was a prominent Zionist leader and one of the founders of the Jewish National Fund, dedicated to acquiring land for Jewish settlement in Palestine.

In the 20th century, the Rabkin name continued to be found among notable individuals, such as Yakov Rabkin (born 1945), a Canadian historian and professor of contemporary Jewish studies, and Leonid Rabkin (1951-2022), a Soviet-born Russian painter and artist.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rabkin

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

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

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

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