Explore the Family Name Smolek

The meaning of Smolek

Czech, Slovak, Croatian, and Polish: from a derivative of Czech, Slovak, and Croatian smola ‘resin, pitch’, figuratively ‘bad luck’, Polish smoła ‘pitch, tar’, used as an occupational name or as a nickname (see Smola).

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Smolek showed a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was the 72,717th most popular surname in the United States, but by 2010, it had slipped to the 76,768th position, representing a change of -5.57%. Despite this drop in rank, the actual count of individuals with the last name Smolek increased slightly from 249 to 250 during the same period. However, when considering the proportion per 100k people, there was an -11.11% change, reducing from 0.09 to 0.08.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#72,717	#76,768	-5.57%
Count	249	250	0.4%
Proportion per 100k	0.09	0.08	-11.11%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Smolek

The Decennial U.S. Census also provides information about the ethnicity associated with the surname Smolek. Between 2000 and 2010, there was essentially no change in the ethnic identity distribution for individuals with this surname. The vast majority, at 97.60%, identified as White, a tiny increase from 97.59% in 2000. Furthermore, approximately 2% identified as Hispanic, showing a negligible decrease of -0.50% over the decade. There were no recorded instances of individuals with the surname Smolek identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either 2000 or 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.59%	97.6%	0.01%
Hispanic	2.01%	2%	-0.5%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%