Explore the Family Name Cahoy

The meaning of Cahoy

1. Americanized form of Slovak Čahoj: unexplained. In the US, it is found mainly in SD and NE. 2. In some cases Filipino: from a Hispanicized form of kahoy, a word meaning ‘tree’ in various languages of the Philippines; probably a topographic name for someone who lived by a conspicuous tree.

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

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

According to data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Cahoy saw a slight decrease in its popularity ranking between 2000 and 2010, moving from 74,164 to 77,522. Despite this drop in rank by 4.53 percent, the actual number of individuals with the Cahoy surname increased marginally by 1.65 percent during the same period, rising from 243 to 247. Consequently, the proportion per 100,000 people declined by 11.11 percent, indicating that while the count increased, it did so at a slower pace than the overall population growth.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#74,164	#77,522	-4.53%
Count	243	247	1.65%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.08	-11.11%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Cahoy

The ethnic identity associated with the Cahoy surname has also seen some changes over the years, as per the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, almost all individuals (97.94 percent) identified as White, but this percentage dropped slightly to 94.74 percent by 2010. The decade also saw the emergence of an Asian/Pacific Islander presence within this group, accounting for 3.24 percent of those with the Cahoy name by 2010. There were no individuals who identified as Hispanic, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either 2000 or 2010. Notably, the category of 'two or more races' was not reported in 2010 due to suppressed data for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.94%	94.74%	-3.27%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	3.24%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%