Explore the Family Name Oppel

The meaning of Oppel

German: 1. from a pet form of an ancient Germanic personal name formed with a cognate of Old High German ōt, Old Saxon ōd ‘possession, wealth’. 2. habitational name from a place so named near Löbau, or perhaps from Oppeln in Silesia. Some characteristic forenames: German Kurt.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Oppel has shown an increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Oppel ranked at 42,056 but moved up to a rank of 39,717 by 2010, marking a 5.56 percent increase. The count of individuals with this surname also rose from 486 in 2000 to 553 in 2010, reflecting a substantial rise of 13.79 percent. Consequently, the proportion of people named Oppel per 100,000 increased by 5.56 percent, going from 0.18 to 0.19.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#42,056	#39,717	5.56%
Count	486	553	13.79%
Proportion per 100k	0.18	0.19	5.56%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Oppel

In terms of ethnicity, data from the Decennial U.S. Census reveals that the majority of individuals with the Oppel surname identify as White, comprising 96.30 percent in 2000 and slightly decreasing to 96.20 percent in 2010. There was no record of individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either of the years analyzed. The percentage of those reporting two or more races dropped from 1.23 percent in 2000 to zero in 2010. Meanwhile, the Hispanic representation within the Oppel surname holders saw a significant increase, rising by 47.15 percent from 1.23 percent in 2000 to 1.81 percent in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.3%	96.2%	-0.1%
Hispanic	1.23%	1.81%	47.15%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	1.23%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%