Explore the Family Name Kicklighter

The meaning of Kicklighter

Americanized form of German Kückleiter, literally ‘chicken ladder’, probably a nickname for a chicken farmer.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Kicklighter experienced a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Kicklighter was ranked as the 18,645th most common surname in the U.S., with a count of 1,362 instances. By 2010, despite an increase to 1,435 occurrences (a change of 5.36%), its rank had dropped to 18,994. This represents a decline in popularity of approximately 1.87%. The proportion of individuals with this surname per 100,000 people also decreased by around 2%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#18,645	#18,994	-1.87%
Count	1,362	1,435	5.36%
Proportion per 100k	0.5	0.49	-2%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kicklighter

Regarding ethnicity, the Census data reveals some changes over this ten-year period. While the majority of those bearing the Kicklighter surname identified as White (93.03% in 2010, down from 96.04% in 2000), there were notable increases in other ethnic identities. For instance, the percentage of Kicklighters identifying as Hispanic increased dramatically from 0.37% in 2000 to 1.95% in 2010. Similarly, those identifying as belonging to two or more races doubled from 0.66% to 1.32%. The percentage of Kicklighters identifying as Black also rose slightly, from 2.42% to 2.93%. Conversely, the percentage identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander in 2000 was 0.51%, while that value was suppressed for privacy reasons in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.04%	93.03%	-3.13%
Black	2.42%	2.93%	21.07%
Hispanic	0.37%	1.95%	427.03%
Two or More Races	0.66%	1.32%	100%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.51%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%