Explore the Family Name Salk

The meaning of Salk

Jewish (American): 1. altered form of Zalk, a Jewish name from Lithuania, most likely a pet form of the Yiddish personal name Zalkind (see Salkin). 2. shortened (and altered) form of some original Ashkenazic surname. Some characteristic forenames: Jewish Abbe, Hyman.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname "Salk" has seen a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, the Salk surname was ranked 50,572 in terms of popularity and this rank dropped to 55,741 in 2010, representing a change of -10.22%. Similarly, the count of individuals with the surname also declined from 388 in 2000 to 368 in 2010, a decrease of about 5.15%. Additionally, the proportion of people with the Salk surname per 100,000 decreased by 14.29%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#50,572	#55,741	-10.22%
Count	388	368	-5.15%
Proportion per 100k	0.14	0.12	-14.29%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Salk

Focusing on the ethnic identity associated with the surname Salk, as per the Decennial U.S. Census data, in 2000, the majority of individuals with this surname identified as White (95.62%), followed distantly by Hispanic ethnicity (2.58%). By 2010, there had been some notable changes in these proportions. While the percentage of those identifying as White slightly declined to 93.75%, the proportion identifying as Hispanic saw a small increase to 2.72%. Interestingly, there were also individuals who identified as Asian/Pacific Islander in 2010, which hadn't been recorded in the 2000 census. The proportions of individuals identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native remained at zero for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.62%	93.75%	-1.96%
Hispanic	2.58%	2.72%	5.43%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	2.17%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%