How common is the surname Balke?

2,196 people in the United States had the surname Balke in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 140,595 Americans. It ranked 13,775th of 162,253 surnames.

Is the surname Balke getting more or less common?

More common. 1,380 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 2,196 in 2010, up 59%.

The surname Balke

A surname, carried by 2,196 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex B420

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Balke is more common than 91.5% of them.

Origin

* As a German surname, from Balken (“beam”). Also a spelling variant of Balk. * As a Norwegian surname, from Old Norse balkr (“beam”), a doublet of the above.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 2,196 people named Balke in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 140,595 Americans. That is up 59% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,380.

#13,775

rank among US surnames

2,196

people in 2010

0.7

per 100,000 Americans

+59.1%

change since 2000 (was #18,473)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#13,771	Badgley	2,197	140,531
#13,775	Balke	2,196	140,595
#13,781	Pettengill	2,195	140,659

Who is named Balke

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

82% of people named Balke identified as white (not Hispanic), 8.7% as Black (not Hispanic) and 5.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 82%
Black (not Hispanic) 8.7%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 5.4%
Asian and Pacific Islander 2.9%

The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Native American, Multiracial are not shown.

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Balke

Balke has the Soundex code B420, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code B420.

Questions

Where does the surname Balke come from?: * As a German surname, from Balken (“beam”). Also a spelling variant of Balk. * As a Norwegian surname, from Old Norse balkr (“beam”), a doublet of the above.
How common is the surname Balke?: 2,196 people in the United States had the surname Balke in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 140,595 Americans. It ranked 13,775th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Balke?: In the 2010 Census, 82% of people named Balke identified as white (not Hispanic), and 8.7% as Black (not Hispanic).
Is the surname Balke getting more or less common?: More common. 1,380 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 2,196 in 2010, up 59%.