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

Shoffner, 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 Shoffner surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Shoffner in America

Shoffner is the 10942nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Shoffner surname appeared 2,910 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 Shoffner.

We can also compare 2010 data for Shoffner 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 Shoffner

The surname Shoffner is believed to have originated in Germany, with its roots dating back to the 16th century. It is thought to be derived from the German word "Schöffe," which refers to a type of alderman or judge responsible for dispensing justice in local communities.

One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Shoffner can be found in the 17th century court records of the town of Freiburg, where a man named Hans Shoffner is listed as serving as a Schöffe in the year 1632.

During the 18th century, the name began to spread across various regions of Germany, with families bearing the Shoffner surname appearing in places like Bavaria, Saxony, and the Rhineland.

As German immigrants started arriving in North America in the 19th century, the Shoffner name made its way to the New World. One notable early bearer of the name was Johann Shoffner, who was born in Hesse in 1812 and emigrated to the United States in 1846, eventually settling in Ohio.

Another prominent figure in the history of the Shoffner name was Wilhelm Shoffner, a German-American businessman who founded the Shoffner Brewing Company in Philadelphia in 1872. The brewery operated until the early 20th century and played a significant role in the city's thriving beer industry at the time.

In the realm of academia, Dr. Hildegard Shoffner, born in 1896 in Berlin, made significant contributions to the field of linguistics. She served as a professor at several prestigious universities in Europe and the United States before her death in 1982.

The Shoffner name has also left its mark in the arts, with notable figures like the American painter and sculptor Robert Shoffner, who was born in 1923 and gained recognition for his abstract expressionist works during the mid-20th century.

While the origins of the Shoffner surname can be traced back to Germany, it has since spread across the globe, with bearers of the name found in various countries and cultures, each contributing to the rich tapestry of its history and legacy.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Shoffner

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

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

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

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