Explore the Family Name Kolbe

The meaning of Kolbe

German: variant of Kolb. Some characteristic forenames: German Arno, Bernhard, Hans, Helmut, Hermann, Horst, Kurt, Liesl, Marliese, Otto, Wolfgang.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Kolbe has seen a slight dip in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Kolbe was ranked 14,958th most popular surname and rose slightly to 15,386th place in 2010, an overall decrease of 2.86%. However, the number of individuals carrying this surname increased from 1,813 to 1,906 during that period, marking a change of 5.13%. The proportion of individuals with this surname per 100,000 people decreased by 2.99%, from 0.67 to 0.65.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#14,958	#15,386	-2.86%
Count	1,813	1,906	5.13%
Proportion per 100k	0.67	0.65	-2.99%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kolbe

When examining the ethnicity of those carrying the Kolbe surname in the U.S., there have been noticeable changes over the decade according to the data from the Decennial U.S. Census. The majority of individuals with this surname identified as White, although this percentage fell slightly from 97.57% in 2000 to 96.07% in 2010. The percentage of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander saw a drop of roughly 23%, while those identifying as Hispanic experienced a growth of 37.50%. Notably, the group identifying as Two or More Races nearly doubled in size, reaching 1.42% in 2010, up from 0.72% in 2000. The proportions of those identifying as Black and American Indian and Alaskan Native experienced increases, though these groups were not represented in the 2000 data.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.57%	96.07%	-1.54%
Two or More Races	0.72%	1.42%	97.22%
Hispanic	0.88%	1.21%	37.5%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.61%	0.47%	-22.95%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0.47%	0%
Black	0%	0.37%	0%