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

Weissman, 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 Weissman surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Weissman in America

Weissman is the 7215th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Weissman surname appeared 4,627 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Weissman.

We can also compare 2010 data for Weissman 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 Weissman

The surname Weissman is an Ashkenazi Jewish name that originated in the Yiddish and German-speaking regions of Central and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. It is a combination of the German words "weiss," meaning white, and "mann," meaning man. Historically, it was likely an occupational name given to someone who worked with white materials, such as a whitener of cloth or a white-haired person.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Weissman surname can be found in the medieval city records of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where a Jacob Weissman was mentioned in the year 1390. The name also appears in various Jewish community registers and tax records from the 15th and 16th centuries in cities like Prague, Krakow, and Lviv.

In the 17th century, a notable figure with the Weissman surname was Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller Weissman (1579-1654), a renowned Polish-Jewish scholar and author of several influential works on Jewish law and philosophy. Another important figure was Rabbi Naftali Hertz Weissman (1725-1805), a prominent Lithuanian Talmudist and author of the influential work "Tiferet Shlomo."

In the 18th and 19th centuries, as Jewish communities faced persecution and restrictions in various parts of Europe, many Weissman families emigrated to other regions, including the United States, Canada, and South America. This diaspora contributed to the spread and variation of the surname's spelling, including Weisman, Weissmann, and Wiseman.

One notable American with the Weissman surname was Benjamin Weissman (1888-1962), a prominent labor leader and co-founder of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). Another notable figure was the American author and critic Philip Weissman (1911-1999), known for his works on Jewish literature and culture.

Overall, the surname Weissman has a rich history, reflecting the experiences and migrations of Jewish communities across Europe and beyond, and has been carried by numerous notable individuals throughout the centuries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Weissman

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

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

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

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