Meier

surname · Latin script

Meaning: from MHG meier 'farm steward, tenant farmer'; also used in many local, terrain, farm, and other surname formations

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Meier is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 25th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 259(measured from records)
  • DEGermany≈1 in 896
  • ATAustria≈1 in 3.7K

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)

≈89,000 people, est.

Sources
417 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 259 (inferred from the name graph)

Switzerland

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from MHG meier 'farm steward, tenant farmer'; also used in many local, terrain, farm, and other surname formations

Sources 1

  • Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Attested across 5 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Meier 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.

Where Meier is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#25≈89,000 est.≈1 in 896listedMeier240
CH Switzerland#332,4411 in 25932KMeier170
US United States—25,4861 in 13K25KMeier417
CA Canada—≈3,100 est.≈1 in 12K—Meier142
GB United Kingdom—≈3,100 est.≈1 in 21K—Meier117
AT Austria#178≈2,400 est.≈1 in 3.7K2Meier104
DK Denmark—1,0031 in 5.9K1K—3
LI Liechtenstein—≈55 est.≈1 in 708376—38

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; the dfa-band-1 register; BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); Statistik Liechtenstein — Familiennamenstatistik (surnames). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Meier is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, United States, Brazil, Switzerland

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Meǐer, Méier, Meïer

  • French surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Switzerland, United States, Canada

    Also written Meïer, Meiër, Méïer

  • a separate name5 spellings in the group

    Also written Meĭer, Méier, Meïer

  • Danish surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Denmark, United States, Switzerland, Norway

    Languages: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish

    Also written Meïer

  • Polish surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, United States, Switzerland

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

    Also written Meïer

  • Chinese surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Switzerland, United States, China, United Kingdom

    Also written Mei-Er

59 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.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Meier 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, from Hebrew Meir 'the shining, enlightening one'

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In German, Plate shows o/ö vowel variation in this surname type. Bearer counts: 234 and 57.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus

  • In German, from mlat. maior (villae), originally a steward of the lord's main farm

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In German, occupational name for a steward/tenant farmer; estate manager

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In German, occupation name; here cited as a common surname in towns

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

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)

19201940196019802000Richard Meier, b. 1934Billy Meier, b. 1937Sid Meier, b. 1954Marita Koch, b. 1957Norbert Meier, b. 1958Urs Meier, b. 1959Petra Felke, b. 1959Christian Meier, b. 1970Ursula Meier, b. 1971Alex Meier, b. 1983
  • Richard Meierb. 1934USAmerican architect (born 1934)
  • Billy Meierb. 1937CHSwiss author and founder of FIGU Organization
  • Sid Meierb. 1954CACanadian-American game programmer and designer
  • Marita Kochb. 1957DEnot in their usual nameEast German sprint track and field athlete (born 1957)
  • Norbert Meierb. 1958DEGerman football player
  • Urs Meierb. 1959CHSwiss football referee
  • Petra Felkeb. 1959DEnot in their usual nameGerman athletics competitor
  • Christian Meierb. 1970PEPeruvian singer-songwriter, director, and actor
  • Ursula Meierb. 1971FRFrench-Swiss film director and actress
  • Alex Meierb. 1983DEGerman footballer

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).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 55 sources across 27 countries.

Official registers attesting Meier
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)202432K#2
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201025K#1,391
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202025K#1,381
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200025K#1,298
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—1K#400
LI LiechtensteinStatistik Liechtenstein — Familiennamenstatistik (surnames)2020376—
DE GermanyDeutscher Familiennamenatlas Band 1———
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 10

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 Meier mean, and where does it come from?
from MHG meier 'farm steward, tenant farmer'; also used in many local, terrain, farm, and other surname formations Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
In which country does Meier have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 89 thousand people named Meier in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled meier.
Where is Meier most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Meier is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 259 people — even though Germany holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Meier?
In Switzerland, the national register counted 32,441 people named Meier in 2024, about 1 in 259 residents.
How common is Meier compared with other names?
In Germany, Meier is the 25th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/meier

The 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, “Meier” — the 25th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Meier parses inside a full name →