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

Schoonmaker, 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 Schoonmaker surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Schoonmaker in America

Schoonmaker is the 11395th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Schoonmaker surname appeared 2,767 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 Schoonmaker.

We can also compare 2010 data for Schoonmaker 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 Schoonmaker

The surname SCHOONMAKER originated in the Netherlands during the 16th century. It is derived from the Dutch words "schoon" meaning clean or pure, and "maker" meaning maker or creator. Initially, the name referred to a maker or manufacturer of cleaning products, such as soap or detergents.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the SCHOONMAKER name dates back to 1602, when a Hendrick Jansen Schoonmaker was mentioned in a church record in the town of Leiden, Netherlands. The name also appeared in various legal documents and property records in the Dutch provinces of South Holland and Utrecht during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The SCHOONMAKER name gained prominence in the New World when several members of the family emigrated from the Netherlands to the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which later became New York. One of the first recorded SCHOONMAKERs in America was Jacobus Schoonmaker, who arrived in the 1650s and settled in the area now known as Kingston, New York.

Over the centuries, the SCHOONMAKER name has evolved with various spelling variations, including Schoonmaker, Schunmaker, Schoenmaker, and Shoemaker. Some notable individuals with the SCHOONMAKER surname include:

1. Marius Schoonmaker (1807-1884), a Dutch-American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York.

2. Walter Schoonmaker (1852-1919), an American businessman and industrialist who co-founded the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

3. Cornelius Schoonmaker (1859-1937), a Dutch-American lawyer and judge who served as a justice of the New York Supreme Court.

4. Eugene Schoonmaker (1870-1942), an American architect known for designing several prominent buildings in New York City, including the Hotel Pennsylvania.

5. Jacobus Schoonmaker (1636-1699), one of the earliest recorded SCHOONMAKERs in America and a prominent figure in the Dutch settlement of Kingston, New York.

The SCHOONMAKER name has also been associated with several notable place names, particularly in the Hudson Valley region of New York, where many early Dutch settlers established themselves. For example, there is a hamlet called Schoonmaker Lane located in the town of Saugerties, New York, which is believed to have been named after one of the early SCHOONMAKER families in the area.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Schoonmaker

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

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

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

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