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

Romer, 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 Romer surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Romer in America

Romer is the 9407th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Romer surname appeared 3,456 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 Romer.

We can also compare 2010 data for Romer 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 Romer

The surname Romer is of German origin, and it is derived from the Old German word "romer," which means "a Roman." The name likely originated in the medieval period, when German-speaking people adopted the name to distinguish themselves as descendants of Roman settlers or to indicate their occupation as traders or merchants who traveled along Roman trade routes.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Romer dates back to the 13th century, where it appears in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, a collection of historical documents from the Kingdom of Saxony. In this document, a person named Henricus Romer is mentioned in the town of Zwickau, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire.

The name Romer also appears in the Stadtbücher von Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a collection of municipal records from the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria, dating back to the 14th century. These records mention several individuals with the surname Romer, including Johannes Romer, a merchant who lived in the town in the late 14th century.

In England, the name Romer is believed to have been introduced by German immigrants during the 16th and 17th centuries. One notable figure from this period is Olaus Romer (1644-1710), a Danish astronomer and inventor who made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and the measurement of the speed of light.

Another famous bearer of the surname Romer is the German painter and printmaker Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810), who was a prominent figure in the Romantic movement and is known for his innovative approach to color theory and his symbolic landscapes.

In the United States, one of the earliest recorded instances of the name Romer is that of Johann Romer (1660-1726), a German immigrant who settled in Pennsylvania in the early 18th century. He was a member of the German Pietist movement and played a significant role in the establishment of the Moravian Church in America.

Other notable individuals with the surname Romer include Alfred Romer (1894-1973), an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who made significant contributions to the study of vertebrate evolution, and Markus Romer (born 1986), a German professional footballer who has played for several clubs in the Bundesliga.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Romer

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Romer, 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!