Explore the Family Name Olk

The meaning of Olk

German: 1. habitational name from any of several places so called (for example, near Trier and in former East Prussia). The placename is probably formed with an element meaning ‘dirty’. 2. from an ancient Germanic personal name formed with the element odal ‘property, riches’, e.g. Olbrich. Some characteristic forenames: German Heinz, Jurgen, Math.

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

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

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Olk saw a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 38,141 in terms of popularity, but by 2010, it had slipped to rank 40,976, marking a change of -7.43%. The count of individuals with this surname also dropped from 546 to 532 during this period, showing a decrease of 2.56%. The proportion of people with the Olk surname per 100,000 also decreased by 10%, moving from 0.2 to 0.18.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#38,141	#40,976	-7.43%
Count	546	532	-2.56%
Proportion per 100k	0.2	0.18	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Olk

When considering ethnic identity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that the Olk surname is predominantly associated with White ethnicity. In 2000, 95.60% of individuals with the Olk surname identified as White, which increased slightly to 96.05% by 2010. During the same period, the percentage of Hispanic individuals with this surname declined from 3.11% to 2.82%, a drop of 9.32%. There were no recorded associations of the Olk surname with Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnic identities during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.6%	96.05%	0.47%
Hispanic	3.11%	2.82%	-9.32%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%