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

Schwilk, 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 Schwilk surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Schwilk in America

Schwilk is the 153769th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Schwilk surname appeared 106 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 Schwilk.

We can also compare 2010 data for Schwilk 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 Schwilk

The surname SCHWILK is of German origin, emerging in the late medieval period in the regions of what is now central and southern Germany. It is derived from the Middle High German words "swil" and "ke", meaning "swollen" and "stream" respectively. This suggests the name may have originated as a description of someone living near a swollen or flooded stream or river.

One of the earliest known references to the name appears in a 14th century manuscript from the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where a Wilhelm Schwilk is mentioned as a local landowner. Place names like Schwilkerbach, a small village in Bavaria, also hint at the surname's early geographic spread.

By the 16th century, records show SCHWILK appearing across parts of Saxony, Thuringia, and Franconia. Notable early bearers include Hans Schwilk (1492-1558), a Protestant minister in Zwickau, and Katherina Schwilk (1521-1592), an influential Benedictine abbess in Bamberg.

As the name dispersed in the 17th and 18th centuries, variants like Schwillk, Schwillick, and Schwillich emerged. Johann Schwilk (1631-1701), a master woodcarver from Nuremberg, gained renown for his intricate altarpieces found in churches across southern Germany.

Into the 19th century, the industrialization of the Ruhr Valley attracted many Schwilks from rural areas. Carl Schwilk (1813-1887) became a prosperous coal merchant in Essen, while his brother Wilhelm (1819-1904) was among the earliest settlers of the boomtown Oberhausen.

As Germans immigrated worldwide in the late 1800s, the surname spread further. In Brazil, Major Gustav Schwilk (1858-1942) distinguished himself fighting for the republican revolutionaries. And in the United States, Helena Schwilk (1849-1921) taught at the first German-English bilingual school in St. Louis, Missouri.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Schwilk

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

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

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

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