Explore the Family Name Traphagen

The meaning of Traphagen

North German (Westphalia): presumably from a hypercorrect form of Traphahn ‘male bustard’ (from Middle Low German traphan), possibly applied as a nickname for a cocky person. This surname is very rare in Germany.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Traphagen saw a shift in its popularity from 2000 to 2010. In the year 2000, it ranked 64,572 in popularity, but by 2010, it had fallen slightly to a rank of 67,747, representing a decrease of approximately 4.92%. Despite this drop in ranking, the actual count of people with the Traphagen surname increased marginally from 288 in 2000 to 291 in 2010, which is an increase of about 1.04%. The proportion per 100,000 people also fell from 0.11 to 0.10 during the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#64,572	#67,747	-4.92%
Count	288	291	1.04%
Proportion per 100k	0.11	0.1	-9.09%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Traphagen

Turning to ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows that the majority of individuals with the Traphagen surname identified as White in both 2000 and 2010, with small decreases over the decade from 96.53% to 96.22%. There was no recorded ethnicity under Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native categories for both years. However, there was an emergence of diversity within the surname's bearers with some identifying as having two or more races and Hispanic, each constituting 1.72% of the total in 2010. This change represents new variations in the ethnic identity associated with the Traphagen surname.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.53%	96.22%	-0.32%
Two or More Races	0%	1.72%	0%
Hispanic	0%	1.72%	0%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%