Explore the Family Name Gath

The meaning of Gath

1. Irish: from Mag Eochadha, see McGough. 2. English (Yorkshire): variant of Garth with loss of -r- before the final consonant, or a variant of Goth. 3. North German (Gäth): see Gaeth. 4. North German: topographic name from Middle Low German gate ‘street, alley’. Some characteristic forenames: German Otto.

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

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

The surname Gath has seen a slight decrease in popularity based on the Decennial U.S. Census data. In the year 2000, Gath was ranked 36,381 in terms of surname prevalence, but by 2010 it had slipped to a rank of 39,555. This represents a drop of approximately 8.72%. The actual count of individuals with the Gath surname also fell from 581 to 556, marking a decline of 4.3%. Consequently, the proportion of the Gath surname per 100,000 people decreased by 13.64% from 2000 to 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#36,381	#39,555	-8.72%
Count	581	556	-4.3%
Proportion per 100k	0.22	0.19	-13.64%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Gath

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of people with the Gath surname identify as White, accounting for 94.84% in 2000 and slightly less at 94.06% in 2010. While there were small percentages identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and Two or more races in 2000, these numbers were suppressed in 2010 for privacy reasons. There was no data for American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year. The percentage of those identifying as Black decreased from 1.55% to 1.44%. Interestingly, the data showed a new emergence of Hispanic identification within the Gath surname bearers, going from 0% in 2000 to 2.88% in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.84%	94.06%	-0.82%
Hispanic	0%	2.88%	0%
Black	1.55%	1.44%	-7.1%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.03%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	1.2%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%