Explore the Family Name Herceg

The meaning of Herceg

Croatian: nickname from herceg ‘duke’, a title of the medieval feudal lords of Herzegovina (‘duke’s land’, a region in Bosnia and Herzegovina), derived from the Hungarian form of German Herzog. Compare Erceg. Some characteristic forenames: Croatian Stanko.

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

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

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Herceg showed a slight increase between 2000 and 2010, moving up in rank from 48,776 to 47,521. This represents a change of 2.57 percent. The number of individuals with this last name also increased during these years, from 406 in 2000 to 446 in 2010, representing a growth rate of 9.85 percent. However, the proportion per 100,000 people remained stable at 0.15.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#48,776	#47,521	2.57%
Count	406	446	9.85%
Proportion per 100k	0.15	0.15	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Herceg

In terms of ethnic identity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that the majority of individuals with the surname Herceg identify as White, though there was a slight decrease from 96.55 percent in 2000 to 95.29 percent in 2010. A small percentage identified as having two or more races, but this group decreased by 9.01 percent over the ten-year span. Interestingly, the census data reported new appearances of Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic identities among those with the Herceg surname in 2010, both categories registering no presence in 2000. There were no changes in the Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native categories during this period.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.55%	95.29%	-1.31%
Two or More Races	2.22%	2.02%	-9.01%
Hispanic	0%	1.57%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.12%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%