Explore the Family Name Kauff

The meaning of Kauff

German: occupational name for a trader, merchant, from Old High German koufo, Middle High German kaufe. Presumably one of the earliest loanwords from Latin, caupo ‘innkeeper, publican, retailer’, it later appeared in several compounds, for instance Kaufmann.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Kauff showed a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 84,631 in prevalence, but by 2010 it dropped to rank 86,981, representing a -2.78% change in rank. Despite this drop in rank, the count of individuals with the Kauff surname actually increased from 206 to 214 during this decade, indicating a population growth rate of 3.88%. However, when adjusted for population size, the proportion of people named Kauff per 100,000 decreased by -12.5%, from 0.08 to 0.07.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#84,631	#86,981	-2.78%
Count	206	214	3.88%
Proportion per 100k	0.08	0.07	-12.5%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kauff

The ethnic identity associated with the Kauff surname also showed some changes between 2000 and 2010 as revealed by the Decennial U.S. Census data. In 2000, the vast majority of Kauffs (96.12%) identified as White, but this percentage dropped slightly to 91.12% in 2010. During the same period, there was a notable emergence of Asian/Pacific Islander ethnic identity among people with this surname, going from 0% in 2000 to 4.21% in 2010. Notably, there were no Kauffs who identified as Two or more races, Hispanic, Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native in either census year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.12%	91.12%	-5.2%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	4.21%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%