Explore the Family Name Kerkes

The meaning of Kerkes

1. Americanized form of Serbian and Croatian Kerkez: nickname from an altered form of ćerkezi ‘wide brims of sleeves of a shirt’, or perhaps an ethnic name from Čerkez ‘Circassian’, more narrowly ‘Cherkess’. 2. Slovak (Kerkeš): probably an altered form of Kerekeš, a surname of Hungarian origin (see Kerekes, compare below). 3. Probably also an Americanized form of Hungarian Kerekes (compare 2 above).

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

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

According to data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname "Kerkes" has seen an overall increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Kerkes was ranked 74,957 in terms of prevalence but improved its rank to 66,931 by 2010, reflecting a growth of 10.71%. The actual count of individuals bearing the surname rose from 240 in 2000 to 295 in 2010, marking an increase of 22.92%. Consequently, the proportion of people named Kerkes per 100k also grew by 11.11% during this decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#74,957	#66,931	10.71%
Count	240	295	22.92%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.1	11.11%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kerkes

When considering the ethnic identity associated with the surname Kerkes based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, most individuals identified as White in both 2000 and 2010, albeit with a slight decline from 94.17% to 90.85% respectively. There is no significant presence of Asian/Pacific Islander, Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native among those bearing the surname. However, there was a notable increase in those identifying as Hispanic from 0% in 2000 to 3.05% in 2010. The percentage of individuals claiming two or more races fell slightly from 4.17% to 3.73% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.17%	90.85%	-3.53%
Two or More Races	4.17%	3.73%	-10.55%
Hispanic	0%	3.05%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%