Explore the Family Name Rafuse

The meaning of Rafuse

Possibly an altered form of German Rehfuss ‘deer foot’, a nickname for someone who was fleet of foot, or Raufuss, a nickname for a crude man from Middle High German rūh fuoz ‘hairy foot’.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Rafuse saw a slight decline between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Rafuse was ranked as the 45,308th most popular surname in the United States with a count of 445 individuals bearing the name. However, by 2010, the surname had dropped to the 50,106th most popular surname, representing a decrease of 10.59%, and the count of individuals with this last name also decreased by 6.07% to 418. The proportion of people named Rafuse per 100,000 residents fell from 0.16 in 2000 to 0.14 in 2010, marking a reduction of 12.5%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#45,308	#50,106	-10.59%
Count	445	418	-6.07%
Proportion per 100k	0.16	0.14	-12.5%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Rafuse

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the surname Rafuse identified as White, albeit with a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, 99% of the Rafuses identified as White, but this figure dropped to 97.13% in 2010, a change of -1.89%. Interestingly, the census reported a small emergence of Hispanic identity among people with this surname, rising from 0 in 2000 to 1.44 in 2010. The data did not record any individuals with the surname Rafuse identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	99%	97.13%	-1.89%
Hispanic	0%	1.44%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%