Explore the Family Name Mahowald

The meaning of Mahowald

Luxembourgish: topographic name meaning ‘at the high forest’, from German (am) Hochwald. This surname is very rare in Luxembourg. History: Family tradition records that five Mahowald brothers came over from Luxembourg in 1852 and settled in MN.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Mahowald saw a modest increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The ranking of this surname moved from 37,534 to 37,180, a small change of 0.94%. During this same period, the count of individuals with this surname increased by 7.53% from 558 to 600. However, when measured as a proportion per 100k, there was a slight decrease of -4.76%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#37,534	#37,180	0.94%
Count	558	600	7.53%
Proportion per 100k	0.21	0.2	-4.76%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Mahowald

In terms of ethnic identity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows slight changes for the surname Mahowald between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of individuals identifying as White decreased slightly from 97.49% to 96.33%. Individuals identifying as Hispanic also saw a decrease of 18.18%, dropping from 1.43% to 1.17%. New categories appeared in 2010 that were not present in 2000; specifically, individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and those reporting two or more races accounted for 1.50% and 1.00% respectively. The specific numbers for these new categories were suppressed for privacy. There were no reported instances of individuals identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.49%	96.33%	-1.19%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.5%	0%
Hispanic	1.43%	1.17%	-18.18%
Two or More Races	0%	1%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%