Explore the Family Name Pfleger

The meaning of Pfleger

German: status name for a legal guardian of a minor, from an agent derivative of Middle High German pflegen ‘to supervise or administrate’. Some characteristic forenames: German Kurt, Erwin, Hans Peter, Merwin, Otto.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Pfleger has seen a rise in popularity over the past decade. In 2000, Pfleger ranked 27,618th in terms of prevalence and had a count of 821 individuals. Ten years later, in 2010, the rank improved to 26,471 while the count increased to 922 individuals, marking a 12.3% increase. The proportion of people with this surname per 100,000 also saw a slight increase from 0.3 to 0.31.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#27,618	#26,471	4.15%
Count	821	922	12.3%
Proportion per 100k	0.3	0.31	3.33%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Pfleger

When looking at the ethnic identity associated with the surname Pfleger based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, there are notable changes between 2000 and 2010. Predominantly, individuals with this surname identified as White, making up 98.05% in 2000 and slightly decreasing to 97.29% in 2010. Interestingly, in 2010, new entries were observed for Hispanic and Black ethnicities contributing 0.98% and 0.65% respectively, whereas in 2000 these categories were not represented. The category of individuals identifying with two or more races decreased by 11.48%, from 0.61% in 2000 to 0.54% in 2010. There was no representation from the Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native groups in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	98.05%	97.29%	-0.78%
Hispanic	0%	0.98%	0%
Black	0%	0.65%	0%
Two or More Races	0.61%	0.54%	-11.48%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%