Unruh
surname · Latin script
Meaning: 'restlessness'; also mhd
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 11 countries · latest register: dane.gov.pl, 2026
/ˈənɹu/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Unruh is a surname written in the Latin script, most frequently recorded in the United States.
- DEGermany
- CACanada
- USUnited States
Where the name is found, darker where our sources hold more of it. No national register counts its bearers anywhere we hold data, so the map carries no figures. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)'restlessness'; also mhd. unruoch 'careless'
Cited for this meaning 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Recorded in:
No national register we accept counts this name’s bearers, so the page lists where it is found and publishes no figure.
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)Unruh is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, person, from Ger. Unruhe disturbance, unrest (MHG unrou(we), unrdwa, OHG unrdwa, from the negative prefix un- + ruowa rest, calm). Ultsch see Ulrich Ulusch see Ulrich Ulyachin see Julian Ulyate see Wolfit
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In German, balance wheel of a timepiece
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In German, Übername für einen unruhigen, unbeständigen Menschen; aus mhd. unruo(we), mnd. unro(u)we 'Unruhe', ungeruowic 'unruhig'. 2103 Tokens.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, Personalmerkmal: zu ‘Unruhe’ = Ruhelosigkeit, Unrast; auch unruhiger Mensch. Bearer count: 2103.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, Personenmerkmal: unruhig, ungeordnet, ungestüm (Wesensart).
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
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)- Hans Victor von Unruhb. 1806RUPrussian and German politician (1806-1886)
- Fritz von Unruhb. 1885DEGerman writer (1885-1970)
- Howard Unruhb. 1921USAmerican mass murderer
- Jesse M. Unruhb. 1922USAmerican politician
- Trude Unruhb. 1925DEGerman politician
- Paul Unruhb. 1928USAmerican basketball player (1928–2023)
- Bill Unruhb. 1945CACanadian physicist
- Heather Unruhb. 1978USAmerican journalist
- Lisa Unruhb. 1988DEGerman archer
- Florian Unruhb. 1993DEGerman archer
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)20 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 11 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 8K | #4,269 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 7.8K | #4,524 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 7.3K | #4,473 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 114 | #57,408 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 47 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 47 | #52,753 |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames) | 2026 | 28 | — |
| PL Poland | dane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (names) | — | 28 | #73,675 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 19 | #37,994 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 18 | #97,089 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 16 | #94,489 |
| UY Uruguay | INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public) | — | 16 | — |
Reference works 4
- 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
- Where does the name Unruh come from?
- 'restlessness'; also mhd. unruoch 'careless' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- How do you pronounce Unruh?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈənɹu/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Unruh mean?
- Recorded meaning: 'restlessness'; also mhd.
- In which country does Unruh have the most bearers?
- Unruh is most frequently recorded in the United States.
What do you want to know about Unruh?
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/unruhThe 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, “Unruh”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.