Explore the Family Name Amundsen

The meaning of Amundsen

Norwegian and Danish: patronymic from the personal name Amund, Old Norse Ǫgmundr, composed of the elements agi ‘awe’ (or possibly ag ‘point of a sword’) + mund ‘protection’. Some characteristic forenames: Scandinavian Alf, Erik, Thor, Egil, Hjordis, Iver, Per, Svein.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Amundsen in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname "Amundsen" saw a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. The rank of the surname dropped from 14,680 in 2000 to 16,203 in 2010, which is a decrease of approximately 10.37%. The count of individuals with this surname also reduced from 1,857 to 1,782 during the same period, marking a 4.04% decrease. This shift is reflected in the proportion per 100k, which fell by 13.04%, from 0.69 to 0.6.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,680	#16,203	-10.37%
Count	1,857	1,782	-4.04%
Proportion per 100k	0.69	0.6	-13.04%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Amundsen

The ethnicity data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows some changes in the ethnic identity associated with the Amundsen surname over the same period. The percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander increased slightly, from 0.65% to 0.79%, an increase of 21.54%. Those identifying with two or more ethnicities fell by 5.62%, from 1.78% to 1.68%. The percentage of white individuals with this surname decreased slightly by 1.24% from 95.80% to 94.61%. Interestingly, there was a notable increase amongst those identifying as Hispanic, from 1.18% to 2.53%, representing a rise of 114.41%. There were no reported changes in the Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native categories for this surname.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.8%	94.61%	-1.24%
Hispanic	1.18%	2.53%	114.41%
Two or More Races	1.78%	1.68%	-5.62%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.65%	0.79%	21.54%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%