Explore the Family Name Forsch

The meaning of Forsch

South German (also Försch): 1. topographic name for someone near a forest or in charge of a tree nursery, from Middle High German forst ‘forest’. 2. nickname from Middle High German vorsche, vorsch ‘inquiry, question’, hence for a legal or court investigator.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Forsch has seen a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Forsch was the 76,700th most common surname and by 2010 it fell to the 87,335th position, marking a decrease of around 13.87%. The count of individuals carrying the Forsch name also dropped from 233 in 2000 to 213 in 2010, experiencing an 8.58% dip. Additionally, the proportion of people with the Forsch surname per 100k of the population decreased by 22.22%, moving from 0.09 in 2000 to 0.07 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#76,700	#87,335	-13.87%
Count	233	213	-8.58%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.07	-22.22%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Forsch

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the overwhelming majority of people with the surname Forsch identify as White. In 2000, this percentage was 98.28 and slightly decreased to 94.37 by 2010. Also, there was a small emergence of Hispanic identification within the Forsch surname bearers, going from 0% in 2000 to 3.29% in 2010. There was no change, however, in the number of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Two or more races, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native; these categories remained at 0 for both the 2000 and 2010 census years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	98.28%	94.37%	-3.98%
Hispanic	0%	3.29%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%