Stouffer last name popularity, history, and meaning

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

Meaning of Stouffer

A German occupational surname for a baker or a stove maker.

Stouffer, 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 Stouffer surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Stouffer in America

Stouffer is the 9150th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Stouffer surname appeared 3,565 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 Stouffer.

We can also compare 2010 data for Stouffer 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 9150 8567 6.58%
Count 3,565 3,539 0.73%
Proportion per 100k 1.21 1.31 -7.94%

The history of the last name Stouffer

The surname STOUFFER is of German origin, originating in the 16th century. It is derived from the German word "Stuffe," which means "step" or "stair." The name likely referred to someone who lived near a flight of stairs or who worked as a stair builder.

In its earliest recorded forms, the surname appeared as "Stuffer," "Stufffer," and "Stueffer" in various German regions, including Bavaria and the Rhineland. It is believed to have originated as a descriptive nickname or occupational name.

One of the earliest known references to the STOUFFER surname can be found in the 1568 church records of Neustadt an der Waldnaab, a town in Bavaria, where a man named Hans Stuffer was mentioned.

Another early record of the name dates back to 1599, when a certain Mathis Stueffer was listed in the tax records of the city of Worms, located in the Rhineland region of Germany.

In the 17th century, the STOUFFER surname began to appear in various parts of Pennsylvania, as German immigrants settled in the region. One of the earliest known STOUFFER families in Pennsylvania was that of Hans Stoffar, who arrived in 1683 and settled in what is now Montgomery County.

Notable individuals with the STOUFFER surname include Abraham Stouffer (1738-1817), a German-American farmer and Revolutionary War soldier from Pennsylvania, and John Stouffer (1829-1903), a prominent businessman and politician from Ohio who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives.

In the 19th century, the STOUFFER name gained prominence in the hospitality industry with the establishment of the Stouffer's restaurant and food service company by Abraham and James Stouffer in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1922. The company, known for its frozen prepared foods and restaurant chains, was later acquired by Nestlé in the 1970s.

Other notable individuals with the STOUFFER surname include James M. Stouffer (1892-1961), an American businessman and co-founder of the Stouffer's company, and Alfred G. Stouffer (1900-1974), a businessman and philanthropist who served as the president of Stouffer's from 1948 to 1965.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Stouffer

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

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 Stouffer was:

Race/Ethnicity Percentage Total Occurrences
Non-Hispanic White Only 96.91% 3,455
Non-Hispanic Black Only (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only 0.50% 18
Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)
Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races 1.01% 36
Hispanic Origin 1.23% 44

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 Stouffer has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 96.91% 98.22% -1.34%
Black (S)% (S)% (S)%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.50% 0.40% 22.22%
American Indian and Alaskan Native (S)% (S)% (S)%
Two or More Races 1.01% 0.62% 47.85%
Hispanic 1.23% 0.57% 73.33%

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

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

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"Stouffer last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com. Accessed on November 22, 2024. http://namecensus.com/last-names/stouffer-surname-popularity/.

"Stouffer last name popularity, history, and meaning". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/last-names/stouffer-surname-popularity/. Accessed 22 November, 2024

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

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