Explore the Family Name Panesar

The meaning of Panesar

Indian (Punjab): from a Sikh (mainly Ramgarhia) clan name, originating from the name of a lake, sar from Sanskrit sarovar for ‘lake’.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Panesar has seen a significant increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, the Panesar surname ranked 109,915 in the United States, while it surged to 79,075 by 2010, indicating a rise in popularity of approximately 28.06%. Furthermore, the raw count of individuals with the Panesar surname grew from 149 to 241 during this time period, marking an impressive increase of 61.74%. The proportion per 100,000 people also saw an uptick from 0.06 to 0.08, translating into a growth of 33.33%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#109,915	#79,075	28.06%
Count	149	241	61.74%
Proportion per 100k	0.06	0.08	33.33%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Panesar

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the Panesar surname identify as Asian/Pacific Islander, although this group saw a slight decrease from 87.25% in 2000 to 85.89% in 2010. Additionally, the proportion of those identifying as having two or more races fell by 31.29%, from 6.04% to 4.15% over the same period. Interestingly, an emergence of White identifiers can be observed, rising from 0% in 2000 to 7.05% in 2010. However, the Hispanic segment decreased by 48.64%, from 4.03% to 2.07%. There was no change recorded for Black identifiers or American Indian and Alaskan Native identifiers within the Panesar surname holders during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	87.25%	85.89%	-1.56%
White	0%	7.05%	0%
Two or More Races	6.04%	4.15%	-31.29%
Hispanic	4.03%	2.07%	-48.64%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%