Explore the Family Name Torgersen

The meaning of Torgersen

Norwegian: patronymic from the personal name Torger, a form of Old Norse Thorgeirr, from Thórr, the name of the Norse god of thunder (see Thor) + geirr ‘spear’. Some characteristic forenames: Scandinavian Thor, Berger, Erik, Jorgen, Morten, Selmer, Torleif.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Torgersen has seen a slight increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, this surname ranked 26,215th in terms of popularity but moved up to the 25,503rd spot by 2010, marking a change of 2.72%. In terms of count, the name saw an increase from 877 instances in 2000 to 969 in 2010, equating to a 10.49% growth. However, the proportion per 100,000 remained constant at 0.33 for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#26,215	#25,503	2.72%
Count	877	969	10.49%
Proportion per 100k	0.33	0.33	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Torgersen

The Decennial U.S. Census data also provides insights into the ethnicity associated with the Torgersen surname. Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of individuals identifying as White with this surname decreased slightly from 97.95% to 95.98%. In contrast, those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander increased from 0.80% to 1.44%, while those identifying as Hispanic saw a minor increase from 0.80% to 0.93%. The census introduced the category of 'Two or more races' in 2010, with 1.14% of individuals with the Torgersen surname identifying as such. No significant changes were observed in the categories of Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native during this time period.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.95%	95.98%	-2.01%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.8%	1.44%	80%
Two or More Races	0%	1.14%	0%
Hispanic	0.8%	0.93%	16.25%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%