Explore the Family Name Trachtenberg

The meaning of Trachtenberg

Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): artificial name derived from either Yiddish trakhtn ‘to think’ or German Tracht ‘costume, (national) dress’ + -berg ‘mountain, hill’, a common artificial ending of Yiddish surnames. Some characteristic forenames: Jewish Meyer, Ari, Avram, Hyman, Mort, Zev.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Trachtenberg saw a slight shift in its popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 28,375th in terms of prevalence, but by 2010, it had slipped to 28,856th, a decline of 1.7%. Despite this drop in ranking, the actual count of people bearing the surname increased by 4.04% during this decade, from 792 in 2000 to 824 in 2010. However, when considering proportion per 100k, there was a decrease of 3.45%.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#28,375	#28,856	-1.7%
Count	792	824	4.04%
Proportion per 100k	0.29	0.28	-3.45%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Trachtenberg

The ethnic identity associated with the Trachtenberg surname also evolved over this period, according to Decennial U.S. Census data. The majority of individuals with this surname identified as White in both 2000 and 2010, though the percentage fell slightly from 96.97% to 94.90%. Meanwhile, those identifying as Hispanic rose from 2.15% to 3.28%, an increase of 52.56%. Additionally, while no Trachtenbergs identified as Asian/Pacific Islander in 2000, by 2010 some 0.61% did. Similarly, the percentage identifying with two or more races also grew from 0.63% to 0.97%. No change occurred for those identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.97%	94.9%	-2.13%
Hispanic	2.15%	3.28%	52.56%
Two or More Races	0.63%	0.97%	53.97%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.61%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%