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    The surname Pfaff

    A German surname, carried by 6,331 people in the United States.

    1 syllable Soundex P100

    Pfaff: #5,498 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Pfaff #5,498, 6,331 people Pfaff: #5,498 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Pfaff #5,498, 6,331 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Pfaff is more common than 96.6% of them.

    Origin

    German origin

    Borrowed from German Pfaff, from Middle High German pfaffe (“cleric”).

    One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 6,331 people named Pfaff in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 48,767 Americans. That is up 0.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 6,282.

    #5,498
    rank among US surnames
    6,331
    people in 2010
    2.1
    per 100,000 Americans
    +0.8%
    change since 2000 (was #5,129)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #5,493Wimmer6,33448,744
    #5,494Buehler6,33348,752
    #5,497Carty6,33248,760
    #5,498Pfaff6,33148,767
    #5,499Ozuna6,32748,798

    Who is named Pfaff

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

    96% of people named Pfaff identified as white (not Hispanic), 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.0% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 96%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
    • Two or more races 1.0%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.6%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 0.2%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Pfaffs

    3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Jean-Marie Pfaff
      Belgian association football player and manager, born 1953
    • Kristen Pfaff
      American musician and singer, 1967–1994
    • William Pfaff
      American journalist (1928–2015)

    Notable Pfaffs come mostly from the United States (2) and Belgium (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Pfaff

    Pfaff has the Soundex code P100, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code P100.

    Other German surnames

    All 1,101 German surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Pfaff come from?
    Borrowed from German Pfaff, from Middle High German pfaffe (“cleric”).
    How common is the surname Pfaff?
    6,331 people in the United States had the surname Pfaff in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 48,767 Americans. It ranked 5,498th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Pfaff?
    In the 2010 Census, 96% of people named Pfaff identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
    Who is the most famous person named Pfaff?
    Jean-Marie Pfaff, Belgian association football player and manager, followed by Kristen Pfaff.
    Where is the surname Pfaff most common?
    Wikidata records people named Pfaff in the United States and Belgium.
    Is the surname Pfaff getting more or less common?
    More common. 6,282 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 6,331 in 2010, up 0.8%.