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

Waggener, 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 Waggener surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Waggener in America

Waggener is the 22503rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Waggener surname appeared 1,143 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 Waggener.

We can also compare 2010 data for Waggener 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 Waggener

The surname Waggener is of Germanic origin, derived from the old German words "wagon" meaning a wheeled vehicle, and "neri" meaning a maker or builder. It first appeared in the regions of modern-day Germany and Switzerland in the late medieval period, around the 13th or 14th century.

The name likely referred to someone who constructed or repaired wagons, carts, or other wheeled vehicles for a living. As a skilled trade, wagon-making was an important occupation in medieval times when transportation of goods and people relied heavily on horse-drawn carts and carriages.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Waggener is found in the Weissenburger Sammlung, a collection of historical documents from the region of Alsace, which was then part of the Holy Roman Empire. The document, dated 1375, mentions a certain "Henrich der Wagenner" or Henry the Wagon-maker.

In the 16th century, the name appears in various town records and tax rolls across parts of southern Germany and Switzerland, with spellings such as Wagener, Wagoner, and Waggoner. This suggests that the name had become more widespread by that time.

A notable early bearer of the name was Johann Waggener, a German clockmaker born in Augsburg in 1555. He is credited with developing one of the earliest weight-driven clocks with a fusee, a mechanism that helped regulate the timekeeping.

In the 17th century, the name can be found in the records of the Palatine region of Germany, from where many immigrants to the American colonies originated. One such immigrant was Hans Waggener, who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1732 and became one of the first settlers of Lancaster County.

Another prominent figure was Caspar Waggener, a German-born artist and engraver active in the late 18th century. He is best known for his intricate copper engravings, including a series depicting various trades and professions of the time.

As the name spread across Europe and later to other parts of the world through migration, variations in spelling emerged, such as Wagoner, Waggoner, and Waggoner. However, the core meaning and origin remained rooted in the occupation of wagon-making or a related trade.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Waggener

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

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

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