Explore the Family Name Dierks

The meaning of Dierks

North German and Dutch: genitivized patronymic from a short form of the personal name Diederik, from ancient Germanic Theodoric (see Terry), composed of the elements theud ‘people, race’ + rīc ‘power(ful), rich’. Compare Dirks. Some characteristic forenames: German Heinz, Detlef, Dieter, Ernst, Hans, Hermann, Jurgen, Klaus.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname 'Dierks' has seen a slight decrease in popularity over a decade. In 2000, it ranked 16,655 and dropped to 17,300 in 2010, marking a change of -3.87%. However, the count of people carrying this surname increased slightly from 1,583 in 2000 to 1,636 in 2010, representing a growth of 3.35%. The proportion per 100,000 people decreased by -6.78% between 2000 and 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#16,655	#17,300	-3.87%
Count	1,583	1,636	3.35%
Proportion per 100k	0.59	0.55	-6.78%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Dierks

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the 'Dierks' surname identified as White in both 2000 (98.42%) and 2010 (97.25%), albeit with a slight decrease of -1.19% over the decade. In contrast, there were notable increases in the proportions identifying with two or more ethnicities (from 0.69% in 2000 to 1.28% in 2010, a change of 85.51%) and those identifying as Hispanic (from 0.44% in 2000 to 0.79% in 2010, an increase of 79.55%). There was no change in the percentage of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or Black, while the percentage identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native rose from 0.00% in 2000 to 0.31% in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	98.42%	97.25%	-1.19%
Two or More Races	0.69%	1.28%	85.51%
Hispanic	0.44%	0.79%	79.55%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.31%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%