How common is the surname Rau?

8,961 people in the United States had the surname Rau in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 34,454 Americans. It ranked 3,968th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Rau?

In the 2010 Census, 91% of people named Rau identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.1% as Asian and Pacific Islander.

Who is the most famous person named Rau?

Gretchen Rau, art director (1939-2006), followed by Chad Rau.

Where is the surname Rau most common?

Wikidata records people named Rau in the United States.

Is the surname Rau getting more or less common?

More common. 8,208 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,961 in 2010, up 9.2%.

The surname Rau

A German surname, carried by 8,961 people in the United States.

1 syllable Soundex R000

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Rau is more common than 97.6% of them.

Origin

German origin

A surname from German.

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 8,961 people named Rau in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 34,454 Americans. That is up 9.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 8,208.

#3,968

rank among US surnames

8,961

people in 2010

3.0

per 100,000 Americans

+9.2%

change since 2000 (was #3,975)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#3,959	Pollack	8,977	34,393
#3,960	Ridgeway	8,975	34,401
#3,961	Bourque	8,973	34,408
#3,962	Wilks	8,972	34,412
#3,964	Jankowski	8,970	34,420
#3,965	Simonson	8,968	34,427
#3,966	Kwan	8,965	34,439

Who is named Rau

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

91% of people named Rau identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.1% as Asian and Pacific Islander and 2.2% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 91%
Asian and Pacific Islander 3.1%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.2%
Black (not Hispanic) 1.7%
Two or more races 1.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Raus

2 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Gretchen Rau
Art director (1939-2006)
Chad Rau
American ice hockey player, born 1987

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Rau

Rau has the Soundex code R000, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R000.

Other German surnames

All 1,101 German surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Rau come from?: Rau is German in origin.
How common is the surname Rau?: 8,961 people in the United States had the surname Rau in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 34,454 Americans. It ranked 3,968th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Rau?: In the 2010 Census, 91% of people named Rau identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.1% as Asian and Pacific Islander.
Who is the most famous person named Rau?: Gretchen Rau, art director (1939-2006), followed by Chad Rau.
Where is the surname Rau most common?: Wikidata records people named Rau in the United States.
Is the surname Rau getting more or less common?: More common. 8,208 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,961 in 2010, up 9.2%.