Explore the Family Name Wahlen

The meaning of Wahlen

1. German: variant of Wahl 2. 2. German: variant of Wahle 2. 3. Swedish (Wahlén): topographic or ornamental name composed of an altered form of the element vall ‘grassy bank, pasture’ + the adjectival suffix -én, a derivative of Latin -enius ‘relating to’. Compare Wahlin and Wallen. 4. Norwegian: variant of Valen.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Wahlen has experienced a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Wahlen was ranked as the 31,986th most popular surname, but it dropped to the 33,731st position by 2010, indicating a decline of 5.46%. The total count of individuals bearing this surname also showed a minimal decrease from 681 in 2000 to 675 in 2010, a change of -0.88%. Similarly, the proportion of people named Wahlen per 100,000 decreased by 8.0% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#31,986	#33,731	-5.46%
Count	681	675	-0.88%
Proportion per 100k	0.25	0.23	-8%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Wahlen

In terms of ethnic identity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the Wahlen surname identified as white, making up 97.06% in 2000 and slightly increasing to 97.19% in 2010. There were no individuals who identified as Black or Asian/Pacific Islander in either 2000 or 2010. A small percentage identified as Hispanic (1.03%) and American Indian and Alaskan Native (1.03%) in 2000, but these numbers fell to zero and 0.74% respectively by 2010. Interestingly, there was a new appearance of individuals identifying with two or more races in 2010, accounting for 1.04% of those with the surname Wahlen.

	2000	2010	Change
White	97.06%	97.19%	0.13%
Two or More Races	0%	1.04%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	1.03%	0.74%	-28.16%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	1.03%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%