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

Sen, 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 Sen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Sen in America

Sen is the 10491st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Sen surname appeared 3,059 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 Sen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Sen 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 Sen

The surname "Sen" has its origins in India, where it first emerged as early as the 6th century AD. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "sena," which means army or military. This suggests that the name may have originally been used to denote someone who was part of an army or had a military profession.

In ancient Indian texts and records, the name "Sen" can be found in various spellings, such as "Sena," "Sain," or "Sein." One of the earliest known references is in the Gupta Empire inscriptions from the 4th-6th centuries AD, where individuals with the title "Senapati" (commander of the army) are mentioned.

During the medieval period, the name "Sen" became more widespread across different regions of India. Several notable figures bore this surname, including Ballala Sen (1192-1293), a ruler of the Sena dynasty in Bengal, and Lakshman Sen (1179-1238), the last Hindu ruler of Bengal before the Muslim conquest.

As the name spread across India, it also took on different regional variations. In the state of West Bengal, for example, the spelling "Shen" became common, while in other parts of India, variations like "Senne" or "Senne" were used.

One of the most famous individuals with the surname "Sen" was the philosopher and mathematician Bhaskaracharya (1114-1185), also known as Bhaskara II or Bhaskaracharya II. He was a renowned scholar and authored several important works on mathematics and astronomy.

Other notable individuals with the surname "Sen" include the Indian freedom fighter Khudiram Bose (1889-1908), who was hanged by the British for his involvement in the independence movement, and the modern Indian writer and academic Amartya Sen (born 1933), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998.

It is worth noting that the name "Sen" has also been adopted by individuals from other communities in India, not necessarily linked to its original military connotation. However, the surname's roots can be traced back to the ancient Indian subcontinent, where it emerged as a marker of military or administrative status.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Sen

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

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

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

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