How common is the surname Kowalski?

18,077 people in the United States had the surname Kowalski in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 17,079 Americans. It ranked 1,999th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Kowalski?

In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Kowalski identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Kowalski?

Daniel Kowalski, Australian swimmer, followed by Robert Kowalski.

Where is the surname Kowalski most common?

Wikidata records people named Kowalski in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Is the surname Kowalski getting more or less common?

Less common. 18,134 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,077 in 2010, down 0.3%.

The surname Kowalski

A Polish surname, carried by 18,077 people in the United States.

3 syllables Soundex K420

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Kowalski is more common than 98.8% of them.

Origin

Polish origin

Borrowed from Polish Kowalski.

One of 304 Polish surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 18,077 people named Kowalski in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 17,079 Americans. That is about the same as in 2000, when the Census counted 18,134.

#1,999

rank among US surnames

18,077

people in 2010

6.1

per 100,000 Americans

-0.3%

change since 2000 (was #1,817)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,990	Dickens	18,123	17,036
#1,991	Judd	18,110	17,048
#1,992	Barbosa	18,106	17,052
#1,993	Hawley	18,100	17,058
#1,994	Rahman	18,097	17,061
#1,995	Crenshaw	18,096	17,062
#1,996	Lackey	18,082	17,075

Who is named Kowalski

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

96% of people named Kowalski identified as white (not Hispanic), 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.1% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 96%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
Two or more races 1.1%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.2%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Kowalskis

3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Daniel Kowalski
Australian swimmer, born 1975
Robert Kowalski
British computer scientist, born 1941
Richard Kowalski
American astronomer, born 1963

Notable Kowalskis come mostly from Australia (1), the United Kingdom (1) and the United States (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Kowalski

Kowalski has the Soundex code K420, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code K420.

Other Polish surnames

All 304 Polish surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Kowalski come from?: Borrowed from Polish Kowalski.
How common is the surname Kowalski?: 18,077 people in the United States had the surname Kowalski in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 17,079 Americans. It ranked 1,999th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Kowalski?: In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Kowalski identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Kowalski?: Daniel Kowalski, Australian swimmer, followed by Robert Kowalski.
Where is the surname Kowalski most common?: Wikidata records people named Kowalski in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Is the surname Kowalski getting more or less common?: Less common. 18,134 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,077 in 2010, down 0.3%.