Explore the Family Name Joos

The meaning of Joos

1. South German and Swiss German: variant of Jost. 2. Dutch: patronymic from the personal name Joos, a short form of the personal name Joseph, or, like Joost and Jost, from the personal name Jodocus (see Joyce). 3. Hungarian: nickname from an archaic spelling of jós ‘fortune teller’.

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

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

According to data taken from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Joos saw a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In the year 2000, it was ranked 20,763 in terms of commonality but by 2010, it had slipped to a rank of 21,119 – a decrease of 1.71%. However, despite this decrease in ranking, the actual number of people bearing the surname Joos increased over the same period from 1,183 to 1,243, representing a growth rate of 5.07%. The proportion per 100,000 of the population with the Joos surname also decreased slightly by 4.55%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#20,763	#21,119	-1.71%
Count	1,183	1,243	5.07%
Proportion per 100k	0.44	0.42	-4.55%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Joos

As for ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of individuals with the Joos surname identify as being of White ethnicity. In 2000, this group made up 96.45% of the total, slipping slightly to 95.74% by 2010. The proportion of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or belonging to two or more races dropped to zero by 2010. Interestingly, the percentage of individuals identifying as Hispanic saw a significant increase from 1.94% in 2000 to 3.22% in 2010. It should be noted that no individuals with the Joos surname identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native during both census years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.45%	95.74%	-0.74%
Hispanic	1.94%	3.22%	65.98%
Two or More Races	0.68%	0.56%	-17.65%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.68%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%