Explore the Family Name Shelnutt

The meaning of Shelnutt

Americanized form of German Schildknecht. Compare Shellnut and Shelnut. History: It was Johann Georg Schildknecht from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, whose surname was changed to Shelnut(t) and Shellnut when he came to North America in the middle of the 18th century. He settled in SC.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Shelnutt saw a slight decrease from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, Shelnutt ranked 18,382 in terms of popularity and had a count of 1,389 instances. However, by 2010, the rank dropped to 19,513 with a count of 1,384 - indicating a 6.15% decrease in rank and a marginal 0.36% decrease in count. Even the proportion of the surname per 100,000 people decreased by 7.84%, from 0.51 in 2000 to 0.47 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#18,382	#19,513	-6.15%
Count	1,389	1,384	-0.36%
Proportion per 100k	0.51	0.47	-7.84%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Shelnutt

In terms of ethnicity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows that the majority of individuals with the surname Shelnutt identified as White, accounting for 97.62% in 2000 and 97.11% in 2010. Over this decade, there was a 0.52% decrease in those who identify as White. The percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander remained stable at 0.36%. The number of people identifying with two or more ethnicities increased by 25.58%, from 0.86% in 2000 to 1.08% in 2010. The Hispanic representation also increased from 0.86% to 1.23%, an increase of 43.02%. It's important to note that no individuals identified as Black, American Indian, or Alaskan Native during both census years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.62%	97.11%	-0.52%
Hispanic	0.86%	1.23%	43.02%
Two or More Races	0.86%	1.08%	25.58%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.36%	0.36%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%