Explore the Family Name Ovesen

The meaning of Ovesen

Danish and Norwegian: patronymic from the personal name Ove, a Danish form of the older Aghi, derived from a word meaning ‘edge, spear’ or ‘respect, fear’. Compare Oveson and Overson.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Ovesen saw a slight increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Ovesen ranked 118,954th in terms of popularity and had a count of 135. By 2010, the rank improved slightly to 118,853 with an increased count of 146, representing an 8.15% growth. Regardless of this increase, the proportion per 100k remained stable at 0.05 in both years, indicating that while the count increased, it did so roughly in line with overall population growth.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#118,954	#118,853	0.08%
Count	135	146	8.15%
Proportion per 100k	0.05	0.05	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Ovesen

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of individuals with the Ovesen surname identify as White, with 74.81% in 2000 and 74.66% in 2010, marking a minimal decrease of 0.20%. The second most common ethnic identity was Black, making up 9.63% in 2000 and slightly decreasing to 9.59% by 2010. Hispanic representation within this surname group also saw an increase from 8.15% in 2000 to 11.64% in 2010, a significant growth of 42.82%. Individuals identifying as two or more races were present in 2000 at 5.93%, but this category dropped to zero by 2010. There were no individuals identified as Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	74.81%	74.66%	-0.2%
Hispanic	8.15%	11.64%	42.82%
Black	9.63%	9.59%	-0.42%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	5.93%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%