Explore the Family Name Laforge
The meaning of Laforge
French: 1. metonymic occupational name for a blacksmith or a topographic name for someone who lived by a forge, from la forge ‘the smithy’ (compare Forge). 2. habitational name from Laforge or La Forge, names of several places in various parts of France. Compare Forget 2. History: Some of the Americans with the surname Laforge are descendants of Jean-Simon Pradet, a soldier from the Poitou region of France, who arrived in Canada in the 1720s, bearing the secondary surname or dit (‘also called’) name St. Gelais. He later owned and operated a forge (smithy) in QC and thus got another dit name Laforge, which was adopted as a surname by his youngest son Louis-Samson-David Pradet who married in Detroit, MI, in 1783. — This surname was also brought to North America by other 17th- and 18th-century (and later) French settlers, either as a genuine surname or as a secondary (dit) surname, including Pierre Latour dit Laforge from France, who was in QC by 1705 and whose descendants also bear the surname Latour and an altered form of the dit name, Forget. Some characteristic forenames: French Emile, Alban, Alphonse, Armand, Camille, Lucien.
Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.
How common is the last name Laforge in the United States?
Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname 'Laforge' remained relatively stable between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 13,584 in popularity and in 2010, a slight shift brought it to 13,588. Despite the rank's minor decline, the count of people with this surname actually increased by approximately 9%, from 2,050 in 2000 to 2,231 in 2010. The proportion per 100,000 people remained steady at 0.76.
| 2000 | 2010 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | #13,584 | #13,588 | -0.03% |
| Count | 2,050 | 2,231 | 8.83% |
| Proportion per 100k | 0.76 | 0.76 | 0% |
Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Laforge
In terms of ethnic identity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows some shifts among individuals with the surname 'Laforge'. Between 2000 and 2010, there was an increase in those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander (from 0.78% to 0.90%), those identifying as belonging to two or more races (from 1.32% to 2.42%), Hispanic (from 2.24% to 3.00%) and American Indian and Alaskan Native (from 5.56% to 6.14%). Meanwhile, there was a decrease in those identifying as white (from 89.17% to 87.18%) and black (from 0.93% to 0.36%).
| 2000 | 2010 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | 89.17% | 87.18% | -2.23% |
| American Indian and Alaskan Native | 5.56% | 6.14% | 10.43% |
| Hispanic | 2.24% | 3% | 33.93% |
| Two or More Races | 1.32% | 2.42% | 83.33% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 0.78% | 0.9% | 15.38% |
| Black | 0.93% | 0.36% | -61.29% |