Explore the Family Name Kafka

The meaning of Kafka

1. Czech and Jewish (from Bohemia): nickname from kavka ‘jackdaw’, applied as a nickname, Jewish artificial name, or a topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a jackdaw. 2. Jewish (from Bohemia): from a pet form of the personal name Jakov (see Jacob).

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Kafka saw a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Kafka was ranked as the 15,369th most popular surname, but by 2010 it had fallen to 16,761st place, marking a drop of 9.06%. The actual count of people with the Kafka surname also declined by 2.74% during this time period, from 1,753 in 2000 to 1,705 in 2010. Consequently, the proportion of Kafkas per 100,000 people fell by 10.77%, from 0.65 to 0.58.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#15,369	#16,761	-9.06%
Count	1,753	1,705	-2.74%
Proportion per 100k	0.65	0.58	-10.77%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kafka

The ethnic identity associated with the Kafka surname also evolved between 2000 and 2010. According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, there was a noticeable increase in the number of Kafkas identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those reporting two or more races — up 41.76% and 31.07% respectively. However, the majority of Kafkas identified as White, although this percentage decreased slightly from 95.72% in 2000 to 93.49% in 2010. During the same period, the percentage of Kafkas who identified as Hispanic increased by 68.78%. Meanwhile, no change was recorded for those identifying as Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.72%	93.49%	-2.33%
Hispanic	2.05%	3.46%	68.78%
Two or More Races	1.03%	1.35%	31.07%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.91%	1.29%	41.76%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%