Explore the Family Name Rudiger

The meaning of Rudiger

German (Rüdiger): from the ancient Germanic personal name Rüdiger, composed of the elements hrōd ‘fame, renown’ + gār, gēr ‘spear, lance’ (see Roger). Compare Ruediger. Some characteristic forenames: German Kurt.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Rudiger has seen a slight decrease in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it ranked 44,027th in terms of popularity among all surnames, but dropped to 46,404th in 2010, indicating a decrease of 5.4%. The count of people carrying the Rudiger surname also saw a marginal drop from 461 in 2000 to 459 in 2010, a decline of 0.43%. The proportion of people with this surname per 100,000 decreased by a small margin from 0.17 to 0.16 during the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#44,027	#46,404	-5.4%
Count	461	459	-0.43%
Proportion per 100k	0.17	0.16	-5.88%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Rudiger

The Decennial U.S. Census also provides insights into the ethnic identity associated with the Rudiger surname. In 2000, approximately 95.01% of individuals with this surname identified as White, which increased slightly to 97.60% in 2010. However, the proportion of individuals identifying as Hispanic saw a significant decrease from 2.17% in 2000 to 1.31% in 2010. While there were some individuals who identified their ethnicity as Asian/Pacific Islander in 2000, this number was suppressed for privacy in the 2010 data. The census recorded no individuals with the Rudiger surname identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either 2000 or 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.01%	97.6%	2.73%
Hispanic	2.17%	1.31%	-39.63%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.08%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%