Explore the Family Name Ganske

The meaning of Ganske

German: probably from a short form of an ancient Germanic personal name formed with gans, a cognate of German ganz ‘whole’ (as in Gansmar), or possibly related to gand ‘magic’. In northern Germany, it could be a variant of Gänsicke, a diminutive of Gans 1.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Ganske has experienced a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Ganske was ranked 31,774 in popularity with a count of 687 bearers, representing a proportion of 0.25 per 100,000 people. By 2010, the rank had dropped to 33,196, despite the count of individuals with this surname marginally increasing to 689. This resulted in a decrease in the proportion of Ganske bearers to 0.23 per 100,000.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#31,774	#33,196	-4.48%
Count	687	689	0.29%
Proportion per 100k	0.25	0.23	-8%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Ganske

Regarding the ethnic identity associated with the surname Ganske, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that it is predominantly found among individuals who identify as White. In 2000, approximately 98.84% of those with the surname identified as White, decreasing slightly to about 97.39% by the year 2010. Notably, there was an increase in those identifying as Hispanic over the same period, going from 0.73% to 1.45%. The data also shows the emergence of individuals with the Ganske surname identifying with two or more races in 2010. However, there were no recorded instances of this surname among the Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnic groups in either census year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	98.84%	97.39%	-1.47%
Hispanic	0.73%	1.45%	98.63%
Two or More Races	0%	0.87%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%