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

Wagner, 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 Wagner surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Wagner in America

Wagner is the 173rd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Wagner surname appeared 155,795 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 53 people would have the surname Wagner.

We can also compare 2010 data for Wagner 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 Wagner

The surname WAGNER originated in Germany and is occupational in origin, derived from the Middle High German word "wagener" which means "wagonmaker" or "cartwright". It emerged during the medieval period, around the 12th century, when surnames were becoming more commonplace across Europe.

One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name WAGNER can be found in the Codex Falkensteinensis, a medieval manuscript from the 13th century, which lists a "Henricus Wagnere" among the residents of the town of Falkenstein in Bavaria. This suggests that the name was already well-established by that time in southern Germany.

The surname WAGNER is also documented in various town records and tax rolls from the 14th and 15th centuries in various parts of Germany, such as the Würzburg region of Bavaria and the Rhineland area. Variants of the spelling like "Wagener" and "Wagnär" were also common in different regions.

In the 16th century, the famous German composer and theorist Arnold von Bruck (1500-1554), who was also known as Arnoldus de Prucia or Arnold Wagner, helped to establish the surname's association with music and the arts.

Another notable bearer of the name was the German philosopher and writer Johann Jakob Wagner (1641-1695), who was a prominent figure in the early Enlightenment period.

During the 18th century, the WAGNER surname gained even greater prominence with the birth of the influential German philosopher and writer Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), who is considered a pioneering figure in the study of art history and archaeology.

The 19th century saw the rise of the renowned German composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883), whose operas and musical compositions cemented the WAGNER name's place in the annals of European cultural history.

Other notable individuals with the surname WAGNER include the German physicist Rudolf Wagner (1805-1864), who made significant contributions to the field of electromagnetism, and the American economist Adolf Wagner (1835-1917), who is known for his work on public finance and the development of the "law of increasing state activity".

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Wagner

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

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

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

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