Explore the Family Name Cadwallader

The meaning of Cadwallader

Welsh: from the personal name Cadwaladr, from (the ancestors of) cad ‘battle’ + gwaladr ‘leader’. History: John Cadwallader (died 1734) came from Pembroke, Wales, to PA in the late 17th century. The name Cadwal(l)ader appears in 18th-century Philadelphia, PA, including Thomas Cadwalader (1707–99), a physician, and his sons, John (1742–86) and Lambert (1743–1823), both revolutionary war soldiers.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Cadwallader showed a decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Cadwallader ranked 14,391 in terms of frequency among surnames, with a count of 1,907 appearances. By 2010, its rank fell to 15,456, with the count slightly declining to 1,895. This represents a change in popularity by -7.4 percent and a proportion per 100k decrease of -9.86 percent.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,391	#15,456	-7.4%
Count	1,907	1,895	-0.63%
Proportion per 100k	0.71	0.64	-9.86%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Cadwallader

When it comes to ethnic identity, the census data reports that the majority of individuals with the surname Cadwallader identify as white, with percentages at 95.8 in 2000 and slightly decreasing to 95.15 in 2010. The percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those from two or more races both dropped over the decade, while the Hispanic ethnicity saw a significant increase from 1.15 percent in 2000 to 2.01 percent in 2010. No Cadwalladers identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native according to the data from the Decennial U.S. Census.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.8%	95.15%	-0.68%
Hispanic	1.15%	2.01%	74.78%
Two or More Races	1.94%	1.79%	-7.73%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.68%	0.58%	-14.71%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%