Feder

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

Feder is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 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.

• English68%

  A surname from German, equivalent to English Feather.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• German7.8%

  from Feder 'feather'; also occupational names

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  Plate shows o/ö vowel variation in this surname type. Bearer count: 65.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus

  occupational name for a scribe; from feather quill

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  feather

  as a word·A Frequency Dictionary of German

• Spanish5.1%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Feder in Spanish.

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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Feder is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Féder, Fëdër, Fe͛́ͭ̉̍ͯDe͛́ͭ̉̍ͯr, Fedër, Fêdêr

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Féder

• Hebrew surname4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Israel, United States, Poland, Romania

  Also written פדר, פידר, Fedder

43 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Feder is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Portuguese, to stink (have a strong bad smell)

  as a word·kaikki.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.

• Johann Georg Heinrich Federb. 1740DEGerman philosopher (1740-1821)
• Gottfried Federb. 1883DEGerman economist and politician (1883-1941)
• Adolphe Federb. 1886FRFrench painter (1886-1943)
• Paula Illemann Federb. 1893DKDanish actress
• Sami Federb. 1909ILRussian/Israeli writer (1909-2000)
• Naftali Federb. 1920ILIsraeli politician (1920-2009)
• Galila Ron-Feder Amitb. 1949ILIsraeli writer
• Kenneth Federb. 1952USarchaeologist
• Robert Federb. 1956USAmerican blogger
• Frédérique Federactress

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).

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Where does the name Feder come from?

from Feder 'feather'; also occupational names Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.

What are other forms of the name Feder?

In the etymology graph, Feather is a form of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Feder?

It depends on the language: in German /ˈfeːdɐ/ (Wiktionary); in Spanish /fedeɾ/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.

What does the name Feder mean?

In English, A surname from German, equivalent to English Feather.

In which country does Feder have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 2.9 thousand people named Feder, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled feder.

How common is the name Feder?

In the United States, the national register counted 2,884 people named Feder in 2010, about 1 in 115 thousand residents.