Explore the Family Name Rathke

The meaning of Rathke

1. North German: from a pet form of Rath 2. 2. Germanized form of Sorbian Ratk and Ratka (see Radtke 3), and possibly also of some other similar Slavic cognate, based on the element rat ‘battle’. Some characteristic forenames: German Armin, Dieter, Erwin, Klaus, Alois, Frieda, Fritz, Hans, Kurt, Lutz, Reinhold.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Rathke has seen a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 20,727 but dropped slightly to rank 21,625 in 2010, indicating a small decline of around 4.33%. Meanwhile, the actual count of individuals with this surname increased marginally from 1,186 in 2000 to 1,206 in 2010, showing a growth of 1.69%. Nonetheless, the proportion of the Rathke surname per 100,000 people decreased by 6.82% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#20,727	#21,625	-4.33%
Count	1,186	1,206	1.69%
Proportion per 100k	0.44	0.41	-6.82%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Rathke

Looking at the ethnic identity associated with the surname Rathke, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that it is predominantly linked with white ethnicity, which accounted for 97.81% in 2000 and decreased slightly to 97.10% in 2010. There was no recorded presence of Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native identities in both years. The representation of the surname within two or more races decreased by 10.71%, from 0.84% in 2000 to 0.75% in 2010. Interestingly, the Hispanic representation of the surname saw a significant increase of 85.53%, jumping from 0.76% in 2000 to 1.41% in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.81%	97.1%	-0.73%
Hispanic	0.76%	1.41%	85.53%
Two or More Races	0.84%	0.75%	-10.71%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%