Explore the Family Name Schou

The meaning of Schou

1. Danish: topographic name for someone who lived by a small wood, from a Germanized form of Danish skov ‘wood, forest, copse’. 2. Norwegian: variant of Schau. Some characteristic forenames: Scandinavian Bertel, Bjorn, Kjeld, Per. German Kurt, Hans.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Schou has seen a slight decrease in popularity between the years 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked as the 47,308th most common surname and dropped to the 48,995th position by 2010, marking a -3.57% change. However, the count of individuals with this last name increased slightly from 422 in 2000 to 430 in 2010, a growth of 1.9%. The proportion per 100k people also saw a small decline from 0.16 in 2000 to 0.15 in 2010, a decrease of -6.25%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#47,308	#48,995	-3.57%
Count	422	430	1.9%
Proportion per 100k	0.16	0.15	-6.25%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Schou

The Schou surname's ethnic identity shows a diverse range based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census. In 2000, about 90.05% identified as White, which declined to 85.58% by 2010. The percentage of those identifying as Hispanic experienced a significant increase from 3.08% in 2000 to 7.21% in 2010. People identifying with two or more races also rose from 1.42% to 2.09%. Meanwhile, those indicating Asian/Pacific Islander ethnicity remained relatively stable at just over 1%, and Black identity decreased slightly from 4.27% to 3.95%. There was no reported change for American Indian and Alaskan Native identity.

	2000	2010	Change
White	90.05%	85.58%	-4.96%
Hispanic	3.08%	7.21%	134.09%
Black	4.27%	3.95%	-7.49%
Two or More Races	1.42%	2.09%	47.18%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.18%	1.16%	-1.69%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%