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

Rieke, 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 Rieke surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rieke in America

Rieke is the 18685th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rieke surname appeared 1,471 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 Rieke.

We can also compare 2010 data for Rieke 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 Rieke

The surname Rieke is of German origin, with its earliest recorded use dating back to the 16th century in the regions of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is believed to be derived from the Old German word "riek," which means "ruler" or "chieftain," suggesting that the name may have initially been a nickname or occupational surname for someone who held a position of authority or leadership within their community.

One of the earliest known recorded instances of the name Rieke can be found in the baptismal records of St. Nicolai Church in Cuxhaven, Germany, where a child named Johann Rieke was baptized in 1582. Another early record is from the city of Soest in North Rhine-Westphalia, where a man named Hinrich Rieke is mentioned in a land transaction document dated 1611.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Rieke appeared in various geographical areas across northern Germany, including the regions of Hanover, Bremen, and Oldenburg. Some notable individuals from this period included Johann Rieke (1618-1692), a Lutheran pastor and theologian from Mecklenburg, and Christian Rieke (1732-1809), a merchant and landowner from the town of Rendsburg in Schleswig-Holstein.

As the Rieke family branched out and migrated to other parts of Europe and the Americas, the name often underwent slight variations in spelling, such as Riecke, Rike, or Ricke. One prominent figure with this surname was the German philosopher and mathematician Richard Rike (1829-1892), who made significant contributions to the fields of logic and set theory.

In the United States, the Rieke name can be traced back to German immigrants who arrived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Some notable American individuals with this surname include Frederick Rieke (1866-1940), a businessman and philanthropist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Robert Rieke (1903-1980), an influential architect known for his modernist designs.

Other notable individuals with the Rieke surname throughout history include the German artist Fritz Rieke (1908-1984), known for his abstract expressionist paintings, and the American physicist Robert Rieke (born 1949), a pioneering researcher in the field of infrared astronomy.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rieke

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

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

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

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