# Kaplan (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/kaplan/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Latin |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 29,582 |
| US rank (2010) | 1,196 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 10,437 people |
| Change since 2000 | +0.6% (29,410 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Ultimately from Latin cappellanus.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Kaplan in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 95% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.4% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.1% |
| Two or more races | 1.1% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Kaplan in the United States, Austria, Argentina, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and Poland.

## People named Kaplan

- Viktor Kaplan, Austrian-Czech engineer and inventor
- Robert D. Kaplan, American writer
- Marvin Kaplan, American actor (1927-2016)
- Gilbert Kaplan, American businessman and amateur conductor (1941–2016)
- Jonathan Kaplan, American director (1947–2025)
- Jeff Kaplan, American video game designer
- Robert S. Kaplan, American accounting academic
- Avi Kaplan, American singer and songwriter, former member of Pentatonix
- Morton Kaplan, American editor (1921-2017)
- David Kaplan, American philosopher and logician
- Julio Kaplan, Argentine-born Puerto Rican US grandmaster
- Helen Singer Kaplan, Austrian-American psychiatrist and sex therapist

and 12 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Keplinger, Kovalenko.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.