Explore the Family Name Neis

The meaning of Neis

1. German (Rhineland) and Dutch: from a short form of the personal name Dionysius, Dutch Denijs (see Dennis). 2. German: variant of Neiss.

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

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

The surname Neis has seen a modest dip in popularity over the last decade, as evidenced by data from the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, the surname ranked 22,132 in the United States, but by 2010 it had slipped to 22,319, representing a decline of 0.84%. Despite this slight drop in rank, the total count of individuals bearing the Neis surname actually increased by roughly 6%, from 1,090 in 2000 to 1,155 in 2010. However, the proportion per 100,000 residents dipped slightly by 2.5% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#22,132	#22,319	-0.84%
Count	1,090	1,155	5.96%
Proportion per 100k	0.4	0.39	-2.5%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Neis

Regarding the ethnicity of those bearing the Neis surname, there have been some notable shifts between 2000 and 2010 according to the Decennial U.S. Census. The majority of individuals with this surname identified their ethnicity as White, though this percentage decreased slightly from 95.05% in 2000 to 92.55% in 2010. At the same time, there were significant increases in the percentages of individuals identifying their ethnicity as Asian/Pacific Islander (from 1.74% to 2.94%) and as being of two or more races (from 1.01% to 2.42%). There were also new instances of individuals identifying as Black and Hispanic, whereas there were none reported in 2000. Conversely, the percentage of individuals identifying as American Indian and Alaskan Native saw a decrease from 1.38% to 0.78%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.05%	92.55%	-2.63%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.74%	2.94%	68.97%
Two or More Races	1.01%	2.42%	139.6%
Hispanic	0%	0.87%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.38%	0.78%	-43.48%
Black	0%	0.43%	0%