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

Wittig, 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 Wittig surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Wittig in America

Wittig is the 12981st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Wittig surname appeared 2,365 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 Wittig.

We can also compare 2010 data for Wittig 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 Wittig

The surname Wittig originated in Germany and can be traced back to the 15th century. It is derived from the Middle Low German word "witte" or "wittich," which means "white" or "pale." This suggests that the name may have been initially given as a descriptive nickname to someone with light-colored hair or a pale complexion.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Wittig name can be found in the town records of Lübeck, a city in northern Germany, dating back to the late 1400s. The name was also present in various other regions of Germany, such as Saxony and Brandenburg, during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Historically, the Wittig surname has been associated with several notable individuals. One such figure was Johann Wittig, a German theologian and reformer who lived from 1515 to 1599. He played a significant role in the Reformation movement and was known for his writings on religious matters.

Another prominent bearer of the Wittig name was Georg Michael Wittig, a German chemist born in 1897. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1979 for his work on the synthesis of organic compounds, particularly the Wittig reaction, which bears his name.

In the field of mathematics, Friedrich Wittig (1892-1968) was a renowned German mathematician and logician. He made significant contributions to the foundations of mathematics and was a member of the prestigious Göttingen school of mathematics.

The Wittig surname can also be found in various place names throughout Germany. For instance, there is a small village called Wittingen in Lower Saxony, which may have been named after an early bearer of the Wittig surname or derived from a similar root word.

Over the centuries, the Wittig name has been spelled in various ways, such as Wittich, Wittich, Wittigh, and Wittig. However, the modern standardized spelling is Wittig.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Wittig

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

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

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

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