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

Thorfinnson, 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 Thorfinnson surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Thorfinnson in America

Thorfinnson is the 160975th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Thorfinnson surname appeared 100 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 Thorfinnson.

We can also compare 2010 data for Thorfinnson 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 Thorfinnson

The surname Thorfinnson has its origins in the Nordic countries, particularly Iceland and Norway, dating back to the Viking era around the 9th to 11th centuries. It is a patronymic name, meaning "son of Thorfinn," where Thorfinn is a compound Norse name derived from the elements "Thor," the name of the Norse god of thunder, and "finn," meaning "Finn" or "person from Finland."

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Thorfinnson can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, which document the lives and adventures of Norse settlers in Iceland. The Orkneyinga Saga, written in the early 13th century, mentions a powerful Norse earl named Thorfinn Thorfinnson, who ruled over the Orkney Islands and parts of mainland Scotland in the 11th century.

Another notable historical figure bearing the name Thorfinnson was Thorvald Thorfinnson, an Icelandic explorer who is believed to have been the first European to set foot in what is now North America. According to the Greenland Saga, Thorvald was part of an expedition led by his brother Leif Erikson around the year 1000 AD, and they established a short-lived settlement in present-day Newfoundland.

In the late 13th century, a Norwegian nobleman named Audun Thorfinnson was appointed as the first lawspeaker (lögmaður) of Iceland, responsible for reciting and interpreting the Icelandic law code known as the Grágás.

During the Middle Ages, the name Thorfinnson was also found in various records and documents in the Scandinavian countries. For example, a charter from the Danish town of Roskilde, dated 1378, mentions a man named Thorfinn Thorfinnson, who was a landowner in the area.

In more recent times, one notable bearer of the surname Thorfinnson was Guðmundur Thorfinnson (1874-1958), an Icelandic politician and diplomat who served as the first Minister of Iceland to the United States from 1941 to 1944.

While the surname Thorfinnson is relatively uncommon today, it remains a testament to the rich cultural heritage and historical significance of the Norse people, particularly in the regions where they settled and left their mark.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Thorfinnson

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

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

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Thorfinnson, 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!