Scheller last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Scheller

A German occupational surname referring to a person who removes animal hides or shells hazelnuts.

Scheller, 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 Scheller surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Scheller in America

Scheller is the 8916th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Scheller surname appeared 3,672 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 Scheller.

We can also compare 2010 data for Scheller 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 8916 9235 -3.51%
Count 3,672 3,248 12.25%
Proportion per 100k 1.24 1.20 3.28%

The history of the last name Scheller

The surname Scheller originated in Germany and dates back to the late medieval period, around the 13th or 14th century. It is derived from the old German word "schelle," which means a small bell or chime. The name likely referred to a bell maker or someone who worked with bells, perhaps a bell ringer in a church or town.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Scheller can be found in the Frankfurt am Main tax records from the year 1387, where a certain "Heynrich Scheller" is listed as a resident. Another early reference is in the church records of Erfurt, Thuringia, from the year 1428, which mentions a "Hans Scheller."

In the 16th century, the surname Scheller began to spread across various regions of Germany, with notable individuals including Johann Scheller (1499-1566), a Protestant theologian and reformer from Saxony, and Christoph Scheller (1570-1650), a German physician and author from Saxony-Anhalt.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, several Schellers rose to prominence in various fields, such as Johann Scheller (1618-1683), a German jurist and law professor from Saxony, and Immanuel Johann Gerhard Scheller (1735-1803), a German philologist and lexicographer from Saxony-Anhalt, known for his work on the Latin language.

In the 19th century, one of the most notable individuals with the surname Scheller was Julius Scheller (1818-1885), a German botanist and plant collector from Saxony, who made significant contributions to the study of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).

Other historical figures with the surname Scheller include Wilhelm August Scheller (1816-1890), a German educator and author from Saxony, and Friedrich Scheller (1817-1884), a German painter and illustrator from Saxony, known for his landscapes and illustrations of fairy tales.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Scheller

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

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 Scheller was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 95.51% 3,507
Non-Hispanic Black Only 0.27% 10
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.68% 25
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.27% 10
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.03% 38
Hispanic Origin 2.23% 82

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

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 95.51% 95.84% -0.34%
Black 0.27% 0.25% 7.69%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.68% 0.77% -12.41%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.27% 0.58% -72.94%
Two or More Races 1.03% 1.05% -1.92%
Hispanic 2.23% 1.51% 38.50%

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

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

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"Scheller last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/scheller-surname-popularity/.

"Scheller last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/scheller-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

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

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