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

Shafer, 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 Shafer surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Shafer in America

Shafer is the 1379th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Shafer surname appeared 25,641 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 9 people would have the surname Shafer.

We can also compare 2010 data for Shafer 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 Shafer

The surname Shafer originated in Germany, where it first appeared in the 12th century. It is derived from the German word "Schäfer," which means "shepherd." The name likely originated as an occupational name for someone who tended sheep or other livestock.

In the Middle Ages, surnames were often derived from a person's occupation or trade. The name Shafer would have been given to someone who worked as a shepherd, indicating that this was a common profession in the regions where the name first emerged.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shafer can be found in the Codex Traditionum Westfalicarum, a collection of medieval documents from the region of Westphalia in northwestern Germany, dated around 1200 CE. This document mentions a person named "Conradus Schäffer."

The name Shafer also appears in various forms in other historical records from different regions of Germany, such as "Scheffer," "Schaefer," and "Schäffer." These variations in spelling were common before the standardization of surnames in the modern era.

Notable individuals with the surname Shafer throughout history include Johann Schäfer (1624-1677), a German composer and organist; Johann Gottlob Benjamin Jakobi-Schäfer (1762-1805), a German poet and writer; and August Schäfer (1833-1916), a German painter and art professor.

Other prominent figures with this surname include Johann Wilhelm Schäfer (1768-1836), a German botanist and naturalist, and Michael Schäfer (1770-1841), a German theologian and philosopher.

It is worth noting that the surname Shafer has also been found in other countries, such as the United States and Canada, likely due to immigration from German-speaking regions. However, its origins can be traced back to its German roots and the occupation of shepherding.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Shafer

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

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

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

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

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!