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Name Lineage

    The surname Sterk

    A Serbo-Croatian surname, carried by 974 people in the United States.

    1 syllable Soundex S362

    Sterk: #25,403 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Sterk #25,403, 974 people Sterk: #25,403 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Sterk #25,403, 974 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Sterk is more common than 84.3% of them.

    Origin

    Serbo-Croatian origin

    * As a German, Dutch and Jewish surname, from the adjective stark (“brave, strong”). * As a Slovene surname Šterk, from the verb štrkati (“to scatter, shoot, splash”), probably from the same source as Czech strkat, or perhaps borrowed from Serbo-Croatian štrk (“gadfly”).

    One of 26 Serbo-Croatian surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 974 people named Sterk in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 316,987 Americans. That is down 1.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 992.

    #25,403
    rank among US surnames
    974
    people in 2010
    0.3
    per 100,000 Americans
    -1.8%
    change since 2000 (was #23,796)

    Who is named Sterk

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

    97% of people named Sterk identified as white (not Hispanic), 1.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 97%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.4%
    • Two or more races 0.7%
    The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Black, Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Sterk

    Sterk has the Soundex code S362, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S362.

    Other Serbo-Croatian surnames

    All 26 Serbo-Croatian surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Sterk come from?
    * As a German, Dutch and Jewish surname, from the adjective stark (“brave, strong”). * As a Slovene surname Šterk, from the verb štrkati (“to scatter, shoot, splash”), probably from the same source as Czech strkat, or perhaps borrowed from Serbo-Croatian štrk (“gadfly”).
    How common is the surname Sterk?
    974 people in the United States had the surname Sterk in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 316,987 Americans. It ranked 25,403rd of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Sterk?
    In the 2010 Census, 97% of people named Sterk identified as white (not Hispanic), and 1.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
    Is the surname Sterk getting more or less common?
    Less common. 992 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 974 in 2010, down 1.8%.