Explore the Family Name Kier

The meaning of Kier

1. Austrian German: occupational name for a cowherd, Chüyger in the Tyrolean dialect, from Kühe ‘cows’ (plural of Kuh) + -er suffix of agent nouns. 2. English (Lancashire): variant of Kear. 3. Scottish (Ayrshire and Lanarkshire): variant of Keir.

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

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

The surname Kier has seen a significant increase in popularity based on the Decennial U.S. Census data. The rank of the name Kier moved from 14,127 in 2000 to 11,348 in 2010, marking an improvement of 19.67%. The count, indicating the number of people with the surname, also rose from 1,954 in 2000 to 2,780 in 2010, which is a substantial 42.27% increase. Additionally, the proportion of individuals named Kier per 100k of the population climbed by 30.56% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,127	#11,348	19.67%
Count	1,954	2,780	42.27%
Proportion per 100k	0.72	0.94	30.56%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kier

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data on the ethnicity of individuals bearing the Kier surname, there have been some shifts between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of Kiers identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander grew by 40.62%, while those claiming two or more ethnic identities increased by 67.57%. The proportion of Kiers who identify as White decreased slightly by 2.18%, while the percentage identifying as Hispanic rose by 25.58%. The representation of Kiers identifying as Black saw a marginal increase of 3.54%, whereas those identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native decreased by 19.86%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	83.47%	81.65%	-2.18%
Black	8.75%	9.06%	3.54%
Hispanic	2.15%	2.7%	25.58%
Two or More Races	1.48%	2.48%	67.57%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	2.87%	2.3%	-19.86%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.28%	1.8%	40.62%