Explore the Family Name Van Gelder

The meaning of Van Gelder

Dutch and Jewish (from the Netherlands): 1. habitational name for someone from Gelderland in the east-central Netherlands. 2. habitational name for someone from Geldern in the Rhineland, Germany. Some characteristic forenames: Dutch Annika, Dirk, Frans, Gerben, Gerritt, Joost, Maarten, Willem.

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

How common is the last name Van Gelder in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Van Gelder has seen a slight decrease in popularity from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, it was ranked 22,185th and by 2010, it had slipped to 23,881st, a fall of 7.64%. The actual count of people with this surname also dipped from 1,086 in 2000 to 1,057 in 2010, marking a 2.67% decrease. The proportion of people named Van Gelder per 100,000 shrank by 10% during this period, going from 0.4 to 0.36.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#22,185	#23,881	-7.64%
Count	1,086	1,057	-2.67%
Proportion per 100k	0.4	0.36	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Van Gelder

Turning to ethnicity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census reveals that the majority of individuals with the surname Van Gelder identify as White, with 94.66% in 2000 and 94.13% in 2010. The percentage of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander decreased by 13.33%, from 1.20% to 1.04% over the same decade. There was also a small decrease of 3.82% in those identifying with two or more races, from 1.57% to 1.51%. Interestingly, the Hispanic segment increased by 19.13%, from 2.30% to 2.74% between 2000 and 2010. No change was noted for individuals who identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native, with both categories remaining at 0%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.66%	94.13%	-0.56%
Hispanic	2.3%	2.74%	19.13%
Two or More Races	1.57%	1.51%	-3.82%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.2%	1.04%	-13.33%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%