Explore the Family Name Widder

The meaning of Widder

German: topographic or habitational name referring to a house distinguished by the sign of a ram, Middle High German wider ‘ram’. Some characteristic forenames: German Erwin, Heinz, Kurt.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the popularity of the surname "Widder" slightly declined between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it ranked 32,488 in terms of prevalence but dropped to 36,585 in 2010, marking a fall of 12.61%. The count of individuals bearing the surname also saw an 8.4% decrease from 667 people in 2000 to 611 in 2010. The proportion of "Widders" per 100,000 people in the population fell by 16%, from 0.25 to 0.21 over the same span.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#32,488	#36,585	-12.61%
Count	667	611	-8.4%
Proportion per 100k	0.25	0.21	-16%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Widder

The ethnic identity associated with the surname "Widder" diversified somewhat between 2000 and 2010, according to data from the Decennial U.S. Census. While those identifying as White constituted the majority (94.60% in 2000 and 93.29% in 2010) of the "Widder" population, there was a noticeable increase in the percentage of Widders identifying as Hispanic (from 1.35% in 2000 to 2.13% in 2010). The percentage of those identifying as Black also increased slightly from 2.70% to 2.95%. Interestingly, while there were no individuals identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or having two or more races in 2000, by 2010, these groups each made up a small fraction (0.82%) of the total. The data for American Indian and Alaskan Native remained suppressed for privacy.

	2000	2010	Change
White	94.6%	93.29%	-1.38%
Black	2.7%	2.95%	9.26%
Hispanic	1.35%	2.13%	57.78%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.82%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0.82%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%