# Rifkin (surname)

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

A surname from Yiddish.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Yiddish |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 1,394 |
| US rank (2010) | 19,390 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 221,482 people |
| Change since 2000 | -6.6% (1,492 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Rifkind |

## Etymology

Jewish metronymic surname, from the Yiddish personal name רבֿקה (rivke, “Rebecca”), with the addition of the Proto-Slavic metronymic suffix *-inъ.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Rifkin 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) | 97% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.8% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 0.6% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Rifkin in the United States.

## People named Rifkin

- Jeremy Rifkin, American economist
- Ron Rifkin, American actor (born 1938)
- Joel Rifkin, American serial killer
- Joshua Rifkin, American conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist

## Similar surnames

Robison, Robson, Robeson.

## 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.