Scharen last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Scharen

A Germanic surname derived from the Middle Dutch word "scharen" meaning troops or armed forces.

Scharen, 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 Scharen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Scharen in America

Scharen is the 140157th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Scharen surname appeared 119 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 Scharen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Scharen 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 140157 140756 -0.43%
Count 119 109 8.77%
Proportion per 100k 0.04 0.04 0.00%

The history of the last name Scharen

The surname Scharen has its origins in Germany, dating back to the 16th century. It is believed to be derived from the Old German word "schar," which means a troop or band of people. This suggests that the name may have been initially given to someone who was part of a military unit or a group of travelers.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Scharen can be traced back to the region of Bavaria in southern Germany. Historical records from the mid-1500s mention individuals with variations of the surname, such as Scharen, Schahren, and Schaaren, residing in villages and towns around the city of Munich.

One notable historical figure bearing the name Scharen was Johann Scharen, a German clergyman born in 1568 in the town of Landsberg am Lech. He served as a Lutheran pastor in various parishes throughout Bavaria and authored several religious texts during his lifetime.

In the 17th century, records show that the Scharen family had spread to other parts of Germany, including the regions of Saxony and Westphalia. One prominent individual from this era was Hans Scharen, a merchant and landowner born in 1632 in the city of Leipzig. He was known for his successful trading ventures and for establishing a prosperous business empire.

The 18th century saw the name Scharen appear in historical documents from the Rhineland region of Germany. One such record mentions a Johann Scharen, born in 1714 in the town of Düsseldorf, who was a respected architect and played a significant role in the construction of several notable buildings in the city.

As the Scharen family continued to spread across Germany in the 19th century, they also began to establish a presence in other parts of Europe. One notable figure from this period was Mathilde Scharen, a German-born artist who lived from 1828 to 1892 and gained recognition for her landscape paintings, which were exhibited in various galleries across Europe.

Another individual of note was Wilhelm Scharen, a German-Austrian physicist born in 1841 in the city of Vienna. He made significant contributions to the field of thermodynamics and was a professor at the University of Vienna for many years.

While the surname Scharen has its roots in Germany, it has since spread to other parts of the world, including North America and Australia, as a result of immigration. However, the historical records and notable figures mentioned above provide insights into the rich heritage and origins of this surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Scharen

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

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 Scharen was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 91.60% 109
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
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 Scharen has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 91.60% 93.58% -2.14%
Black 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
Asian and Pacific Islander (S)% 0.00% (S)%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races (S)% 4.59% (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 Scharen was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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