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

Thorbjornsen, 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 Thorbjornsen surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Thorbjornsen in America

Thorbjornsen is the 129047th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Thorbjornsen surname appeared 132 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 Thorbjornsen.

We can also compare 2010 data for Thorbjornsen 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 Thorbjornsen

The surname Thorbjornsen has its origins in Norway, dating back to the Viking era. It is a patronymic name, derived from the Old Norse personal name Thorbjorn, which means "thunder bear." This name was commonly given to newborn sons in honor of the god Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

The earliest recorded instances of the name Thorbjornsen can be found in ancient Norse sagas and manuscripts from the 9th and 10th centuries. One notable individual bearing this name was Thorbjorn Hornklofi, a powerful Norwegian chieftain who lived in the late 9th century and was known for his involvement in the famous Battle of Hafrsfjord.

In the 11th century, the Thorbjornsen name appeared in the Landnámabók, an Icelandic book of settlements, which recorded the names of early Norse settlers in Iceland. One such settler was Thorbjorn Vifilsson, who established a homestead in the southern region of Iceland around the year 920.

During the Middle Ages, the Thorbjornsen name spread across Scandinavia, particularly in Norway and Sweden. In the 13th century, a prominent figure named Thorbjorn Olafsson served as a lawspeaker (lagsögumaður) in Iceland, responsible for reciting and interpreting the country's laws.

Another notable individual with the Thorbjornsen surname was Thorbjorn Angervaddsson, a Swedish military commander who played a significant role in the Swedish War of Liberation against Denmark in the early 16th century. He was born around 1490 and died in 1541.

In the 17th century, Thorbjorn Thorbjornsen, a Norwegian farmer and landowner, was recorded in the parish records of Voss, a municipality in western Norway. His descendants continued to use the Thorbjornsen surname for generations.

As the Thorbjornsen name spread throughout Scandinavia, variations in spelling emerged, such as Thorbjörnsson, Thorbjörnsen, and Thorbjörnsson. These variations often reflected regional dialects and language adaptations within different parts of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Thorbjornsen

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

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

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

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