Shachar last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Shachar

A surname derived from the Hebrew word meaning "dawn" or "first light".

Shachar, 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 Shachar surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Shachar in America

Shachar is the 108199th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Shachar surname appeared 164 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 Shachar.

We can also compare 2010 data for Shachar 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 108199 148244 -31.23%
Count 164 102 46.62%
Proportion per 100k 0.06 0.04 40.00%

The history of the last name Shachar

The surname SHACHAR is of Hebrew origin and can be traced back to the biblical period. It is derived from the Hebrew word "shachar," which means "dawn" or "morning." The name likely originated among Jewish communities in the Middle East and was later adopted by some Sephardic Jewish families who settled in other parts of the world.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname SHACHAR can be found in the Cairo Geniza, a collection of Jewish manuscript fragments from the 9th to 19th centuries. This suggests that individuals bearing this surname were present in the medieval Jewish communities of the Middle East and North Africa.

During the Middle Ages, the SHACHAR surname appears to have been particularly prevalent among Jewish communities in Spain and Portugal. Several notable individuals with this surname are mentioned in historical records from the Iberian Peninsula, such as Rabbi Joseph SHACHAR, a renowned scholar who lived in the 13th century.

As Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition, many SHACHAR families sought refuge in other parts of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Some settled in communities across Italy, the Netherlands, and the Balkans, where the surname continued to be used.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, as Jewish emancipation and social mobility increased, individuals with the surname SHACHAR began to emerge in various fields. One example is Moses SHACHAR, a prominent Hebrew writer and educator who lived in the Russian Empire from 1819 to 1890.

Another noteworthy individual with the SHACHAR surname was Isser SHACHAR, a Zionist activist and one of the founders of the Jewish Legion during World War I. He was born in 1885 in what is now Ukraine and played a significant role in the establishment of Jewish defense organizations in Palestine.

Variations of the SHACHAR surname, such as Schachar or Shahar, can also be found in historical records, reflecting the different ways the name was transliterated or adapted in different regions and languages.

Overall, the surname SHACHAR has a rich history rooted in the Jewish diaspora, spanning various regions and time periods. Its origins can be traced back to the ancient Hebrew language and biblical era, and it has been carried by numerous individuals who have made contributions to Jewish culture, scholarship, and the Zionist movement throughout the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Shachar

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

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 Shachar was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 97.56% 160
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% 0
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 0.00% 0
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 Shachar has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 97.56% 98.04% -0.49%
Black (S)% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%
Two or More Races 0.00% (S)% (S)%
Hispanic (S)% 0.00% (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 Shachar was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

Reference this page

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If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

"Shachar last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on June 24, 2025. http://namecensus.com/last-names/shachar-surname-popularity/.

"Shachar last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/shachar-surname-popularity/. Accessed 24 June, 2025

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

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