Garbe
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: from ONFr garbe ‘wheatsheaf’; metonymic for one dealing with sheaves or tithes; first attested Henry Garbe 1275 RH (Norfolk)
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈɡɑɹb/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Garbe is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country.
- DEGermany≈1 in 21K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 285K
- FRFrance≈1 in 59K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Germany (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 201 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 21K (inferred from the name graph)
≈3,900 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Germany, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from ONFr garbe ‘wheatsheaf’; metonymic for one dealing with sheaves or tithes; first attested Henry Garbe 1275 RH (Norfolk)
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
How Garbe is read(measured from records)
Garbe is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English46%
from ONFr garbe ‘wheatsheaf’; metonymic for one dealing with sheaves or tithes; first attested Henry Garbe 1275 RH (Norfolk)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
- German23%
from 'Gerstengarbe'; perhaps also from Prussian garbis 'mountain'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
sheaf
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- French19%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Garbe in French.
- Spanish5.6%
inflection of garbar:
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Garbe counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | ≈3,900 est. | ≈1 in 21K | — | Garbe | 113 |
| US United States | 1,168 | 1 in 285K | 1.2K | Garbe | 201 |
| FR France | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 59K | 163 | — | 2 |
| PH Philippines | ≈600 est. | ≈1 in 183K | — | Garbe | 11 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈530 est. | ≈1 in 509K | — | Garbe | 2 |
| CA Canada | ≈260 est. | ≈1 in 143K | — | Garbe | 54 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Garbe is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Albanian, flowerpot; pot or jug with a broken neck
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In yol, dress, fashion, garb
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Marie Théodore Urbain Garbeb. 1769FRFrench politician and officer (1769–1831)
- Richard von Garbeb. 1857DEGerman indologist and librarian (1857–1927)
- Gustav Garbeb. 1865DEGerman politician (1865-1935)
- Herbert Garbeb. 1888DEGerman sculptor (1888–1945)
- Albert Garbeb. 1904DEGerman actor, stage actor and film actor (1904-1975)
- Charlotte Garbeb. 1929DEGerman politician (1929-2013)
- Anne Garbeb. 1945DEGerman politician
- Alain Garbeb. 1950FRFrench politician
- Detlef Garbeb. 1956DEGerman historian of modern age
- ]licht-ung[DEnot in their usual nameGerman musician
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 23 sources across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.2K | #22,131 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.2K | #21,069 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.1K | #23,050 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 226 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 223 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 201 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 185 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 163 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 163 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 129 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 128 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 113 | — |
Reference works 5
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Garbe mean, and where does it come from?
- from ONFr garbe ‘wheatsheaf’; metonymic for one dealing with sheaves or tithes; first attested Henry Garbe 1275 RH (Norfolk) Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- How do you pronounce Garbe?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɡɑɹb/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Garbe have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 3.9 thousand people named Garbe in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled garbe.
- How common is the name Garbe?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,168 people named Garbe in 2010, about 1 in 285 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Garbe?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/garbeThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Garbe”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.