German Surnames

If you decide to not hire a Genealogist, you may find yourself trying to determine what an unfamiliar German Last Name is from an old document, such as a Death Certificate or a Marriage Record. This list will help identify some of those names.

 

List of Most Common German Last Names

This is a list of the top 100 common German Surnames according to 2012’s German phonebooks.  The list includes the English translation / definition.  
 

01. Müller     miller
02. Schmidt    smith
03. Schneider    taylor
04. Fischer    fisher
05. Weber     weaver
06. Schäfer    shepherd
07. Meyer    steward of landholder
08. Wagner     wagoner
09. Becker    from Bäcker – baker
10. Bauer    farmer
11. Hoffmann    landed farmer
12. Schulz    mayor
13. Koch    cook
14. Richter    judge
15. Klein    small
16. Wolf    wolf
17. Schröder    carter
18. Neumann    new man
19. Braun    brown
20. Werner    defense army
21. Schwarz    black
22. Hofmann    landed farmer
23. Zimmermann    carpenter
24. Schmitt    smith
25. Hartmann    strong man
26. Schmid    smith
27. Weiß    white
28. Schmitz    smith
29. Krüger    potter
30. Lange    long
31. Meier    steward of landholder
32. Walter    leader, ruler
33. Köhler    charcoal-maker
34. Maier     steward of landholder
35. Beck    from Bach – stream; Bäcker – baker
36. König    king
37. Krause    curly-haired
38. Schulze    mayor
39. Huber    land owner
40. Mayer    steward of landholder
41. Frank    from Franconia
42. Lehmann    serf
43. Kaiser    emperor
44. Fuchs    fox
45. Herrmann    warrior
46. Lang    long
47. Thomas    Aramaic twin
48. Peters    Greek rock
49. Stein    rock, stone
50. Jung    young
51. Möller    miller
52. Berger      from French -> shepherd
53. Martin    latin war-like
54. Friedrich    fridu- peace, rihhi- powerful
55. Scholz    mayor
56. Keller    cellar
57. Groß    big
58. Hahn    rooster
59. Roth    from rot -red
60. Günther    Scandinavian warrior
61. Vogel    bird
62. Schubert    Schuochwürchte-> shoemaker
63. Winkler    from Winkel ->angle
64. Schuster    shoemaker
65. Jäger    hunter
66. Lorenz    derived from latin Laurentius
67. Ludwig    luth- famous, wig- war
68. Baumann    farmer
69. Heinrich    heim > home and rihhi – powerful
70. Otto    ot- property, inheritance
71. Simon    Hebrew God has listened
72. Graf    count, earl
73. Kraus    curly-haired
74. Krämer    small trader, dealer
75. Böhm    of Bohemia
76. Schulte    from Schultheiß – debt-broker
77. Albrecht    adal- noble, bereht- famous
78. Franke    of Franconia
79. Winter    winter
80. Schumacher    cobbler, shoemaker
81. Vogt    steward
82. Haas    – nickname for rabbit hunter; coward
83. Sommer    summer
84. Schreiber    writer, scribe
85. Engel    angel
86. Ziegler     brickmaker
87. Dietrich    people’s ruler
88. Brandt    fire, burn
89. Seidel    mug
90. Kuhn    councilman
91. Busch    bush
92. Horn    horn
93. Arnold    strength of an eagle
94. Kühn    councilman
95. Bergmann    miner
96. Pohl    Polish
97. Pfeiffer    piper
98. Wolff    wolf
99. Voigt    steward
100. Sauer    sour

Source: www.about.com

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