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

Vandewater, 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 Vandewater surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Vandewater in America

Vandewater is the 22334th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Vandewater surname appeared 1,154 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 Vandewater.

We can also compare 2010 data for Vandewater 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 Vandewater

The surname VANDEWATER has its origins in the Netherlands and likely first appeared in the 16th or 17th century. It is derived from the Dutch words "van de" meaning "from the" and "water" referring to a body of water or waterway. Together, the name suggests the original bearers lived near a river, lake, or other significant waterway.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the VANDEWATER name can be found in the Dutch province of Zeeland, where a family bearing this surname lived near the Rhine River delta in the 1500s. Similar spellings like VAN DE WATERE and VAN DER WATERE also appeared in historical records from this region during that time period.

In the late 16th century, a VANDEWATER family settled in the town of Leiden, which was a prominent center of the Protestant Reformation. Johannes VANDEWATER, born in 1587, was among the earliest known members of this Leiden branch of the family. His grandson, Pieter VANDEWATER (1621-1691), later emigrated to New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) in the 1650s.

As the Dutch established colonies in the New World, the VANDEWATER name spread across the Atlantic. One of the first recorded instances in North America is Jacob VANDEWATER, born in 1650 in New Amsterdam. He later moved to Albany, where he served as a magistrate and landowner.

Another notable early bearer of the VANDEWATER name was Maria VANDEWATER (1669-1745), who married into the prominent Van Rensselaer family and helped establish one of the largest landholdings in colonial New York.

In the 19th century, William VANDEWATER (1812-1897) was a respected lawyer and judge in New York state, serving as a county judge and later as a justice on the state's Supreme Court.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Vandewater

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

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

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

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