Explore the Family Name Fetterly

The meaning of Fetterly

Americanized form of German Vetterle or Vätterli, from a pet form of Middle High German vetter ‘secondary male relative’, i.e. uncle or cousin, but not father or son.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Fetterly saw a small increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 35487th in terms of commonality across the country, but by 2010 it had moved up to 35147th place, representing an upward shift of 0.96%. The total count of people with this surname also increased from 600 in 2000 to 641 in 2010, marking a 6.83% growth. However, the proportion of individuals with this surname per 100,000 people remained steady at 0.22 across both years.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#35,487	#35,147	0.96%
Count	600	641	6.83%
Proportion per 100k	0.22	0.22	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Fetterly

In terms of ethnicity, data from the Decennial U.S. Census showed that the vast majority of people with the surname Fetterly identified as White in both 2000 and 2010, although there was a slight decrease from 94.67% to 92.36%. Those identifying as Hispanic made up the second largest group, growing from 2.50% to 3.59% over the decade. A small percentage identified as having two or more ethnicities, increasing from 1.17% to 1.87%. There were no recorded instances of individuals with this surname identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native. Interestingly, by 2010, slightly over 1% of people with the Fetterly surname started identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, a category that wasn't represented in the 2000 census.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.67%	92.36%	-2.44%
Hispanic	2.5%	3.59%	43.6%
Two or More Races	1.17%	1.87%	59.83%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.09%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.17%	0%	0%