# Welk (surname)

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

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 2,407 |
| US rank (2010) | 12,812 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 128,270 people |
| Change since 2000 | +26% (1,916 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* As a German surname, variant of Welge, from Middle Low German welich (“lively, luxuriant”), from Old Saxon welag, from Proto-West Germanic *welag; also as a variant of Welsch. * Also as a German surname, from archaic Middle High German welc (“mild, soft”), from the root of the verb welken (“to wither”). * As a Lower Sorbian surname, from wjelk (“wolf”). * Also as a Sorbian surname, from the personal name Welimir, from Proto-Slavic *velь (“great”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Welk 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) | 96% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.5% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 1.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Welk in the United States.

## People named Welk

- Lawrence Welk, American musician, bandleader, and impresario (1903–1992)

## Similar surnames

Wilk, Walk, Wolk, Welke, Wells, Welch, Welsh, Welsch, Welles, Wallace, Willis, Walsh.

## 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.