Explore the Family Name Jelsma

The meaning of Jelsma

West Frisian: patronymic, formed with the suffix -ma ‘(one of the) men of’, from a genitivized short form of the personal name Jelle, a vernacular short form of an ancient Germanic name composed with the element gelt ‘sacrifice, repay’. Some characteristic forenames: Dutch Henk, Wiebe.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Jelsma saw a decline in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 65,298th and dropped to 69,793rd by 2010, a decrease of approximately 6.88%. The total count of people with this surname also slightly decreased over this decade from 284 to 281, a drop of about 1.06%. The proportion of individuals carrying this surname per 100,000 people also saw a reduction from 0.11 to 0.10, indicating a decrease of around 9.09%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#65,298	#69,793	-6.88%
Count	284	281	-1.06%
Proportion per 100k	0.11	0.1	-9.09%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Jelsma

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census shows that there were some shifts in the ten-year period from 2000 to 2010. The majority of people with the Jelsma surname identified as White, although this percentage fell from 92.25% to 88.97%. There was a new representation of Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic identifiers, at 1.78% and 5.34% respectively in 2010, where there had been none in 2000. Those identifying with two or more races saw a decrease of 24.35%, dropping from 4.23% to 3.20%. The categories of Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native remained at 0% for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	92.25%	88.97%	-3.56%
Hispanic	0%	5.34%	0%
Two or More Races	4.23%	3.2%	-24.35%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.78%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%