Explore the Family Name Gladfelter

The meaning of Gladfelter

Americanized form of Swiss German Glattfelder: habitational name for someone from a place north of Zurich named Glattfelden, from Old High German glat ‘plane, shiny’ + feld ‘open country’. The surname Glattfelder is also found in southern Germany. Compare Clodfelder, Clodfelter, Clotfelter, Glatfelter, and Glotfelty.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Gladfelter saw a minor decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 18,982nd in popularity in the U.S., with 1,328 individuals carrying this name. By 2010, despite an increase in count to 1,354, the rank had fallen slightly to 19,852nd. This change represented a 4.58% drop in the surname's overall popularity, and the proportion per 100,000 people also decreased by 6.12%, from 0.49 to 0.46.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#18,982	#19,852	-4.58%
Count	1,328	1,354	1.96%
Proportion per 100k	0.49	0.46	-6.12%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Gladfelter

Regarding ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census shows that the majority of those with the surname Gladfelter identified as White — 96.46% in 2000 and 95.35% in 2010, indicating a slight decrease of 1.15%. The Hispanic representation increased significantly from 0.90% in 2000 to 1.85% in 2010. While those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and Two or more races decreased by 10.00% and 19.53% respectively. For the first time in 2010, Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnic identities appeared among the Gladfelter surname holders, accounted for 0.52% and 0.44% respectively.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.46%	95.35%	-1.15%
Hispanic	0.9%	1.85%	105.56%
Two or More Races	1.28%	1.03%	-19.53%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.81%	-10%
Black	0%	0.52%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.44%	0%