Explore the Family Name Rethman

The meaning of Rethman

Americanized form of North German Rethmann: topographic name for someone who lived where reeds grew, from Middle Low German rēt ‘reed’.

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

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

Based on the data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Rethman has seen a significant increase between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 50,055 in terms of common use, while by 2010, it had climbed to the 45,959th position — an improvement of 8.18%. The actual count of people with the Rethman surname also grew during this decade, from 393 to 464 individuals. This represents an impressive growth rate of 18.07%. Furthermore, for every 100,000 people, the proportion having this surname rose from 0.15 to 0.16, a 6.67% increase.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#50,055	#45,959	8.18%
Count	393	464	18.07%
Proportion per 100k	0.15	0.16	6.67%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Rethman

When examining the ethnicity of individuals carrying the Rethman surname, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data, there were some noticeable shifts between 2000 and 2010. Most prevalent among those identifying as Rethman is the White ethnic group, though their percentage dropped slightly from 97.20% to 94.18%. Those identifying as two or more races increased from 1.27% to 1.94%, a significant change of 52.76%. Interestingly, the Hispanic community emerged within the Rethman surname holders, moving from 0% to 1.08%. Similarly, the American Indian and Alaskan Native ethnicity also made an appearance in the 2010 data at 2.37%. However, during this period, there were no identified Rethmans within the Asian/Pacific Islander and Black ethnic groups.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.2%	94.18%	-3.11%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	2.37%	0%
Two or More Races	1.27%	1.94%	52.76%
Hispanic	0%	1.08%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%