Explore the Family Name Piersma

The meaning of Piersma

West Frisian: patronymic, formed with the suffix -ma ‘(one of the) men of’, from a genitivized form of the personal name Pier, a short form of Pieter (see Peter).

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Piersma has seen a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 62,961st most common surname, but by 2010, it had fallen to the 64,721st spot, indicating a 2.8% drop. However, the actual count of people with this surname increased marginally from 297 to 307 during the same period, demonstrating a growth of 3.37%. Consequently, the proportion of people named Piersma per 100,000 decreased by 9.09%, changing from 0.11 to 0.1.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#62,961	#64,721	-2.8%
Count	297	307	3.37%
Proportion per 100k	0.11	0.1	-9.09%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Piersma

The ethnicity associated with the surname Piersma, as indicated by the Decennial U.S. Census data, is predominantly White. In 2000, a substantial 96.97% of individuals with this surname identified as White, which slightly reduced to 95.77% by 2010. Interestingly, there were no recorded instances of this surname among people identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, or American Indian/Alaskan Native in either year. However, there was a new emergence of Piersma within the Black community by 2010, accounting for 1.95% of people with this surname, a change from zero percent in 2000. There were no reported instances of individuals identifying as two or more races using this surname during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.97%	95.77%	-1.24%
Black	0%	1.95%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%