Explore the Family Name Hanover

The meaning of Hanover

1. Americanized form of German Hannover: habitational name from the city of Hannover in Lower Saxony. The placename, first recorded in the form Honovere, is a compound of Middle Low German hō, hōch ‘high’ + ōver ‘bank, shore’. 2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Hannover (see 1 above).

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Hanover has seen a slight decrease in rank from 19,942 in 2000 to 20,949 in 2010, marking a 5.05% drop. However, the actual count of individuals with the Hanover surname increased modestly by 0.88%, from 1,246 to 1,257 over the same period. This resulted in a minor reduction in the proportion of the Hanover surname per 100,000 people, decreasing by 6.52%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,942	#20,949	-5.05%
Count	1,246	1,257	0.88%
Proportion per 100k	0.46	0.43	-6.52%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Hanover

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of individuals with the Hanover surname identified as White, making up 91.25% of the total in 2010, down from 94.86% in 2000. The Hispanic demographic saw a significant increase, rising from 1.12% in 2000 to 3.50% in 2010. Additionally, there were notable introductions of Asian/Pacific Islander and Black ethnic identities within the Hanover surname population, registering 0.64% and 0.56% respectively in 2010 - these categories had no representation in the 2000 data. The percentage of those identifying as Two or more races saw a small decrease while American Indian and Alaskan Native category witnessed an increase of 40.67%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.86%	91.25%	-3.81%
Hispanic	1.12%	3.5%	212.5%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	2.09%	2.94%	40.67%
Two or More Races	1.2%	1.11%	-7.5%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.64%	0%
Black	0%	0.56%	0%