Explore the Family Name Sapper

The meaning of Sapper

South German: probably from an agent derivative of Middle High German sappen ‘to walk away awkwardly’; ‘to gather or acquire’, hence a nickname for someone with a slow, clumsy gait, or a greedy person.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Sapper saw a slight decrease in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it ranked 58,692 in terms of popularity and this rank fell to 60,636 by 2010, showing a decline of approximately 3.31 percent. However, contrary to the drop in ranking, the count of individuals with the surname Sapper actually increased from 323 to 332 during the same period, indicating a growth of about 2.79 percent. The proportion of individuals named Sapper per 100,000 population also saw a decrease, going down by 8.33 percent.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#58,692	#60,636	-3.31%
Count	323	332	2.79%
Proportion per 100k	0.12	0.11	-8.33%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Sapper

In terms of ethnicity, the people bearing the Sapper surname showed an almost exclusive white ethnic identity according to the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, about 95.36 percent identified as white, and this figure increased slightly to 96.39 percent by 2010. Ethnic identities of two or more races were recorded in 2000 at 2.48 percent, but no such instance was reported in 2010. The census also noted a small emergence of Hispanic identity within the Sapper surname bearers, increasing from 0 percent in 2000 to 2.11 percent in 2010. No Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native identities were recorded for this surname in either census year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.36%	96.39%	1.08%
Hispanic	0%	2.11%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	2.48%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%