Explore the Family Name Orf

The meaning of Orf

German: possibly a metonymic occupational name for a fisherman, from orfe, a species of freshwater fish. Alternatively, a habitational name from Urff near Kassel, formerly Orpha.

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

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

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Orf has seen a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. Ranked 20,871 in 2000, it fell to 21,048 in 2010, representing a popularity drop of 0.85%. However, the total count of people carrying the Orf surname did increase by 6.21% during this decade, rising from 1,176 in 2000 to 1,249 in 2010. Consequently, the proportion of people with the Orf surname per 100,000 decreased by 4.55%, suggesting that while the absolute number of people named Orf increased, its relative popularity compared to other surnames declined.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#20,871	#21,048	-0.85%
Count	1,176	1,249	6.21%
Proportion per 100k	0.44	0.42	-4.55%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Orf

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the vast majority of individuals with the surname Orf identified as white, although this percentage slightly decreased from 97.79% in 2000 to 97.36% in 2010. The proportion of those identifying as having two or more races increased by 25.49%, albeit from a small base of 1.02% in 2000. A slight increase was also observed in the Hispanic segment, which saw a 20% growth, moving from 0.60% to 0.72% over the ten-year period. Meanwhile, there were no recorded changes in the Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, and American Indian and Alaskan Native categories for the Orf surname.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.79%	97.36%	-0.44%
Two or More Races	1.02%	1.28%	25.49%
Hispanic	0.6%	0.72%	20%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.4%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%