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

Thelen, 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 Thelen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Thelen in America

Thelen is the 6065th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Thelen surname appeared 5,657 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Thelen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Thelen 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 Thelen

The surname THELEN is of German origin, first appearing in records from the region of Westphalia in the northwestern part of the country during the late medieval period. It is believed to have derived from the Old German word "thel," meaning "valley" or "dale," suggesting that the original bearers of the name likely lived in or came from a particular valley area.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the THELEN surname can be found in a 14th-century document from the town of Soest in Westphalia, where a certain "Johannes Thelen" is mentioned as a landowner. This indicates that the name had already established itself as a hereditary surname by that time.

In the 16th century, the THELEN name appears to have spread to other parts of Germany, as evidenced by records from various cities and regions. For instance, a Johannes Thelen is listed as a citizen of Cologne in 1554, while another individual named Matthias Thelen is recorded as living in the town of Alzey in Rheinhessen in 1572.

Several notable individuals have borne the THELEN surname throughout history. One of the earliest was Johann Thelen (c. 1570-1635), a German composer and organist who served in the court of the Elector of Brandenburg. Another was Caspar Thelen (1619-1675), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his portraits and genre scenes.

In the 19th century, Carl Thelen (1838-1920) was a prominent German-American architect based in Chicago, responsible for designing several notable buildings in the city, including the Auditorium Building and the Studebaker Theater.

More recently, Mark Thelen (1944-2010) was an American baseball player who spent several seasons in the Major Leagues, primarily with the Detroit Tigers in the 1960s and 1970s.

While the THELEN surname is most commonly associated with Germany and the German diaspora, it has also been adopted by families in other parts of Europe and beyond, potentially through migration or variation in spelling from similar-sounding names.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Thelen

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

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

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

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