Explore the Family Name Degen

The meaning of Degen

1. German and Swiss German: status name from Middle High German degen ‘boy, warrior, hero’. This surname is also found in Slovenia. 2. German and Dutch: from a short form of ancient Germanic personal names like Degenhard, Degenhold, and others, with generally the same meaning as in 1 above. Some characteristic forenames: German Dieter, Kurt, Bernhard, Erna, Erwin, Fritz, Gunther, Hans, Helmuth, Klaus, Otto.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Degen has seen a slight increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Degen was ranked 15,009 in popularity with a count of 1,807 individuals bearing this last name. By 2010, the rank had slightly improved to 14,838 with a count of 1,997, marking an increase of 1.14 percent in ranking and 10.51 percent in the number of people with the surname.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#15,009	#14,838	1.14%
Count	1,807	1,997	10.51%
Proportion per 100k	0.67	0.68	1.49%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Degen

When it comes to ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows some changes over the same decade. While the majority of individuals with the Degen surname identified as White in both years (95.85 percent in 2000 and 94.24 percent in 2010), there was a notable increase in those identifying as Hispanic from 1.60 percent to 3.05 percent. The percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those with two or more races also saw slight increases. However, the number of individuals identifying as Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native dropped to zero by 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.85%	94.24%	-1.68%
Hispanic	1.6%	3.05%	90.62%
Two or More Races	0.89%	0.95%	6.74%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.77%	0.8%	3.9%
Black	0.61%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.28%	0%	0%