Explore the Family Name Wakabayashi

The meaning of Wakabayashi

Japanese: written 若林 ‘young forest’. It is found mostly in eastern Japan. Some characteristic forenames: Japanese Shigeru, Isao, Noriko, Yoshitaka, Akira, Daisuke, Hidehito, Hideki, Hiro, Hiroaki, Hiroshi, Hisao.

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

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

According to the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname Wakabayashi in the United States has seen a slight decrease from 2000 to 2010. In 2000, the name ranked 51,809 in popularity and declined to 55,841 by 2010. This represents a drop of approximately 7.78%. The total count of individuals with the Wakabayashi surname also decreased from 377 in 2000 to 367 in 2010, a reduction of about 2.65%. The proportion per 100,000 people with the surname also fell by 14.29% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#51,809	#55,841	-7.78%
Count	377	367	-2.65%
Proportion per 100k	0.14	0.12	-14.29%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Wakabayashi

In terms of ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals that the majority of individuals with the Wakabayashi surname identify as Asian/Pacific Islander. However, the proportion identifying as such dropped slightly from 86.21% in 2000 to 85.29% in 2010. Those identifying with two or more ethnicities remained fairly constant at around 7.43% in 2000 and 7.36% in 2010. The percentage of those identifying as White decreased from 5.31% in 2000 to 4.90% in 2010. Interestingly, there was a small emergence of individuals identifying as Hispanic within this surname group, increasing from 0% in 2000 to 2.45% in 2010. The proportions of those identifying as Black and American Indian/Alaskan Native remained static at 0% for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	86.21%	85.29%	-1.07%
Two or More Races	7.43%	7.36%	-0.94%
White	5.31%	4.9%	-7.72%
Hispanic	0%	2.45%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%