Explore the Family Name Petrus

The meaning of Petrus

1. Dutch: from a Latinized form of the personal name Pieter (see Peter). 2. Hungarian: from a pet form of the personal name Péter (see Peter). 3. Ukrainian: from a pet form of the personal name Petro (see Peter).

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Petrus has seen an uptick in recent years. In 2000, it was the 15,652nd most popular surname in the U.S., but by 2010 it had climbed to 14,267th place—a change of nearly 9%. The total count of people with the surname also increased from 1,714 in 2000 to 2,100 in 2010, a rise of over 22%. As a result, the proportion of people named Petrus per 100,000 people also increased by nearly 11%, from 0.64 in 2000 to 0.71 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#15,652	#14,267	8.85%
Count	1,714	2,100	22.52%
Proportion per 100k	0.64	0.71	10.94%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Petrus

The ethnic identity associated with the surname Petrus has experienced some shifts between 2000 and 2010, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data. While the majority identify as White (84.10% in 2010, a slight decrease from 86.87% in 2000), there have been increases in other ethnic identities. Those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander more than doubled from 1.28% to 2.90%. People identifying as Black also saw a significant increase, from 6.83% to 8.71%. Meanwhile, those identifying as Hispanic saw a modest growth from 2.10% to 2.29%. However, no data was available for 2010 regarding those identifying as two or more races or as American Indian and Alaskan Native, due to data suppression for privacy reasons.

	2000	2010	Change
White	86.87%	84.1%	-3.19%
Black	6.83%	8.71%	27.53%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.28%	2.9%	126.56%
Hispanic	2.1%	2.29%	9.05%
Two or More Races	2.63%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.29%	0%	0%