Explore the Family Name Peltola

The meaning of Peltola

Finnish: habitational name from farms so named, from pelto ‘field’ (compare Pelto) + the locative suffix -la. Established as a hereditary surname in the 19th century mainly in southern and western Finland. Some characteristic forenames: Finnish Eino, Esa, Heikki, Irja, Jorma, Martti, Paavo, Sulo, Toivo, Torsti, Veikko.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Peltola has seen a slight decline in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 71,808th most common name, but dropped to 75,069th in 2010 - a decrease of 4.54%. Despite this drop in ranking, the actual number of individuals with the surname increased by 1.58% during the same period, from 253 to 257 people. However, its proportion per 100,000 people remained stagnant at 0.09.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#71,808	#75,069	-4.54%
Count	253	257	1.58%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.09	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Peltola

In terms of ethnic identity, the Peltola surname is primarily associated with White ethnicity, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. This group saw a negligible decrease of 0.24%, maintaining a dominant presence of around 88.72% in 2010. The second-largest ethnicity group, American Indian and Alaskan Native, decreased by 28.39% from 8.70% in 2000 to 6.23% in 2010. Interestingly, there were no recorded individuals of Asian/Pacific Islander or Black ethnicity with the Peltola surname in either census year. The 2010 census did, however, note a small emergence of individuals identifying with two or more races (3.11%) and Hispanic ethnicity (1.95%).

	2000	2010	Change
White	88.93%	88.72%	-0.24%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	8.7%	6.23%	-28.39%
Two or More Races	0%	3.11%	0%
Hispanic	0%	1.95%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%