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

Wiest, 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 Wiest surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Wiest in America

Wiest is the 9108th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Wiest surname appeared 3,588 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Wiest.

We can also compare 2010 data for Wiest 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 Wiest

The surname WIEST is of German origin and is believed to have emerged in the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old German word "wiest," which means "wilderness" or "wasteland." This suggests that the name may have been given to someone who lived in or near an uncultivated or uninhabited area.

The earliest recorded instances of the WIEST surname date back to the 13th century in various regions of Germany, including Bavaria, Saxony, and the Rhineland. Some of the earliest known bearers of the name include Johannes Wiest, who was mentioned in records from the town of Aachen in 1283, and Heinricus Wiest, who was listed in documents from the city of Cologne in 1312.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the WIEST surname appeared in various spellings, such as Wiest, Wyst, Wüst, and Wuest, reflecting regional variations in pronunciation and spelling conventions. One notable individual from this period was Johann Wiest, a German merchant and landowner born in Nuremberg in 1421.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, as migration and travel became more common, the WIEST surname spread to other parts of Europe, including Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many WIEST families emigrated to the United States and other parts of the world, contributing to the global distribution of the name.

Among the notable individuals bearing the WIEST surname throughout history are:

1. Friedrich von Wiest (1592-1676), a German military commander and diplomat who served during the Thirty Years' War.
2. Joseph Wiest (1758-1841), a German-American farmer and soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War.
3. Erasmus Wiest (1804-1889), a German-American Lutheran minister and educator who founded Wiest's Seminary in Pennsylvania.
4. Rudolph Wiest (1870-1938), a German actor and film director who worked in the early years of the German cinema industry.
5. Bethel Henry Wiest (1903-1983), an American author and educator known for his works on literature and literary criticism.

The WIEST surname continues to be found around the world, particularly in areas with German heritage and communities that trace their origins back to the historical regions where the name first emerged.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Wiest

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

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

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

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