Explore the Family Name Yaffe

The meaning of Yaffe

Jewish (Ashkenazic): artificial name from Hebrew yafe ‘beautiful, pleasant’, a variant of Jaffe. Some characteristic forenames: Jewish Chaim, Ehud, Eliahu, Ilanit, Meyer, Shlomo, Yaacov, Yariv, Yossi.

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

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

Based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Yaffe has seen slight changes in popularity over the years. In 2000, it was ranked 28,522 in terms of frequency, but it fell slightly to a rank of 29,447 in 2010, representing a change of -3.24%. However, the actual count of individuals with the surname increased from 787 in 2000 to 802 in 2010, an increase of 1.91%. The proportion of individuals with the last name Yaffe per 100k people decreased by 6.9%, from 0.29 in 2000 to 0.27 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#28,522	#29,447	-3.24%
Count	787	802	1.91%
Proportion per 100k	0.29	0.27	-6.9%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Yaffe

Concerning ethnicity, the Decennial U.S. Census data shows a small shift in the ethnic identity associated with the surname Yaffe between 2000 and 2010. While the majority of Yaffes identified as White (96.32% in 2000 and 94.26% in 2010), there were small increases in those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic. The percentage of Asian/Pacific Islanders went from 0 in 2000 to 1.50 in 2010, while Hispanics increased from 1.52% to 2.24%. Conversely, the percentage of Yaffes identifying with two or more races saw a decrease from 1.40% to 1.00%. There were no Yaffes who identified as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.32%	94.26%	-2.14%
Hispanic	1.52%	2.24%	47.37%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.5%	0%
Two or More Races	1.4%	1%	-28.57%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%