Explore the Family Name Elders

The meaning of Elders

1. English (North eastern England): variant of Elder 1 and 2, with post-medieval excrescent -s. 2. Dutch: genitivized patronymic from Eldert, from the ancient Germanic personal name Adelhard, composed of the elements adel ‘noble’ and hard ‘hardy, strong’, a vowel variant of Alders.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname "Elders" saw a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. Ranked as the 16,525th most popular surname in 2000, it dropped to 17,258th position in 2010, marking a 4.44% decline. However, the actual count of people with the Elders surname increased by 2.5%, from 1,601 in 2000 to 1,641 in 2010. This shows that although the surname became less common relative to other surnames, the number of people with this surname actually grew.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#16,525	#17,258	-4.44%
Count	1,601	1,641	2.5%
Proportion per 100k	0.59	0.56	-5.08%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Elders

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some interesting shifts between 2000 and 2010. The proportion of Elders identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander rose significantly by 164.86%, albeit from a low base. Similarly, those identifying as Hispanic or American Indian and Alaskan Native also saw sizeable increases of 125.93% and 132.00% respectively. Meanwhile, the proportion of people with the Elders surname identifying as White fell slightly by 1.43%, while those identifying as Black decreased more markedly by 16.69%. The percentage claiming two or more races remained relatively stable, showing only a minor increase of 1.85%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	90.76%	89.46%	-1.43%
Black	5.93%	4.94%	-16.69%
Hispanic	0.81%	1.83%	125.93%
Two or More Races	1.62%	1.65%	1.85%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.5%	1.16%	132%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.37%	0.98%	164.86%