Wolf

surname · Latin script

Meaning, in English: from a shortened form of Germanic compound names beginning with wolf; or a nickname for wolflike qualities; or Yiddish Volf ‘wolf’; or a translation of Irish Gaelic Ó Faoldin

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

/wʊlf/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Wolf is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 17th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 659(inferred from the name graph)
  • ATAustria≈1 in 1.1K
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 2K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Wolf itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Germany (inferred from the name graph)

≈120,000 people, est.

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
535 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 659 (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

WolfLatin(measured from records)
וולףHebrew(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled וולף in IL Israel.

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.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from a shortened form of Germanic compound names beginning with wolf; or a nickname for wolflike qualities; or Yiddish Volf ‘wolf’; or a translation of Irish Gaelic Ó Faoldin

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.

How Wolf is read(measured from records)

Wolf is one spelling over 2 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.

  • English64%

    from a shortened form of Germanic compound names beginning with wolf; or a nickname for wolflike qualities; or Yiddish Volf ‘wolf’; or a translation of Irish Gaelic Ó Faoldin

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

    from the wolf (OE wulf); first attested Robert Wulf 1166 P (L). Also found in French forms Lou and Love; compare LOW, LOVE.

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

  • German20%

    From germ. *wulfa- ‘wolf’; plate shows final f/ff variation in the surname forms.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

    from German Wolf 'wolf', used as a nickname or ancient personal name

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

    from OHG wolf, O.S. wulf 'wolf'; also linked with WALTEN and WOHL

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

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.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Wolf, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Wolf 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 Wolf is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#17≈120,000 est.≈1 in 659listedWolf274
US United States#40683,928as Wolfe1 in 4K84KWolf535
GB United Kingdom#699≈10,000 est.≈1 in 6.3K3KWolf177
AT Austria#27≈8,300 est.≈1 in 1.1K39Wolf149
BR Brazil—7,488as Wolff1 in 28K7.5K—6
CH Switzerland#1264,2171 in 2K4.2KWolf94
IL Israel#8583,384as וולף1 in 2.6K3.4Kוולף70
LU Luxembourg—≈270 est.≈1 in 2.3K972—17

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; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); CBS Israel — Family names in Israel, 2017 ("שמות משפחה בישראל 2017"); IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Luxembourg top-100 surnames (surnam.es). 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)

Wolf is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, Argentina, Mexico

    Languages: Spanish, French, Catalan

    Also written Wõlf, Wòlf, Wôlf, Wőlf, Ŵőlf

  • Polish surname9 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, United States, Slovakia

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

    Also written Wólf, Ŵolf, Wôlf, Wöĺf, Wőlf

  • a separate name4 spellings in the group

    Also written Wôlf, Wölf

  • Croatian surname28 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Croatia, United States, Bulgaria, Serbia

    Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Slovenian

    Also written Volf, Wolff, Вольф, Волф, Wôlf

  • Indonesian surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Netherlands

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Wõlf, Wōlf

72 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)

Wolf 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.

  • As house shield “zum Wolf ” or “by the wolf ” is found in Altdorf in the area of Mahlberg, Baden. Since 1722 exist- ing in Heidelberg and Weinheim. Wolf Benjamin (see the Genesis 49: 27) was a Sephard. Is Slavic. Is Spanish. Is Romanian.

    as a nameThe Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History

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)

1850190019502000Hugo Wolf, b. 1860Max Wolf, b. 1863Friedrich Wolf, b. 1888Markus Wolf, b. 1923Konrad Wolf, b. 1925Christa Wolf, b. 1929Dick Wolf, b. 1946Tom Wolf, b. 1948Naomi Wolf, b. 1962Trym Aunevik, b. 1968
  • Hugo Wolfb. 1860ATAustrian composer (1860–1903)
  • Max Wolfb. 1863DEGerman astrophotography pioneer (1863-1932)
  • Friedrich Wolfb. 1888DEGerman writer (1888-1953)
  • Markus Wolfb. 1923DEHead of the East German foreign intelligence service during the Cold War (1923–2006)
  • Konrad Wolfb. 1925DEEast German film director (1925–1982)
  • Christa Wolfb. 1929DEGerman novelist and essayist (1929–2011)
  • Dick Wolfb. 1946USAmerican television producer (born 1946)
  • Tom Wolfb. 1948USGovernor of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2023
  • Naomi Wolfb. 1962USAmerican feminist and journalist (born 1962)
  • Trym Aunevikb. 1968USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor

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)

FormalDear Mr Wolf,
InformalHi Wolf,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 89 sources across 38 countries.

Official registers attesting Wolf
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201070K#474
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202070K#467
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200069K#427
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20244.2K#140

Reference works 11

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 Wolf mean, and where does it come from?
from a shortened form of Germanic compound names beginning with wolf; or a nickname for wolflike qualities; or Yiddish Volf ‘wolf’; or a translation of Irish Gaelic Ó Faoldin Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
What are other forms of the name Wolf?
In the etymology graph, Wolfe, Lobo and Dietrich are forms of the same name in other languages.
How do you pronounce Wolf?
A machine transcription gives /wʊlf/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Wolf have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 122 thousand people named Wolf in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled wolf.
How common is the name Wolf?
In Switzerland, the national register counted 4,217 people named Wolf in 2024, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.
How common is Wolf compared with other names?
In Germany, Wolf is the 17th most common surname of 765,306 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Wolf?

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

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, “Wolf” — the 17th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Wolf parses inside a full name →