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

Wunderlich, 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 Wunderlich surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Wunderlich in America

Wunderlich is the 9068th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Wunderlich surname appeared 3,604 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 Wunderlich.

We can also compare 2010 data for Wunderlich 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 Wunderlich

The surname Wunderlich originated in Germany and can be traced back to the 13th century. It is derived from the Middle High German words "wunder" meaning "wonderful" or "marvelous" and "lich" meaning "like" or "body". Thus, Wunderlich translates to someone who has a marvelous or wonderful appearance or character.

One of the earliest known references to the name Wunderlich is found in the 1295 Bavarian codex, where a Heinricus Wunderlich is mentioned. The name also appears in various other medieval records from German-speaking regions, suggesting it was relatively widespread during that era.

In the 16th century, the Wunderlich surname emerged in areas like Saxony, Thuringia, and Silesia. Variations in spelling included Wunderliche, Wunderlych, and Wunderlick. The name was often associated with specific locations, such as Wunderlich von Dornberg, referring to a place called Dornberg.

Notable individuals with the surname Wunderlich throughout history include Johann Wunderlich (1615-1677), a German theologian and writer from Saxony. Another was Johann Wunderlich (1766-1826), a Prussian jurist and writer on legal theory.

In the 19th century, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich (1815-1877) was a German physician who made significant contributions to the study of body temperature and clinical thermometry. He is credited with establishing the standard of 98.6°F (37°C) as normal body temperature.

Other historical figures with the Wunderlich surname include Friedrich Wunderlich (1820-1876), a German composer and music theorist, and Ernst Wunderlich (1886-1962), a German architect and urban planner who designed several notable buildings in Berlin during the early 20th century.

The Wunderlich name also has associations with various place names, such as Wunderlich Manor in Saxony, which dates back to the 16th century, and the town of Wunderlich in Lower Silesia, now part of Poland.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Wunderlich

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

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

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