Meier

surname · German · Latin script

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

Meier is a surname, most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is the 26th most common surname. It appears chiefly in German and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: from MHG meier 'farm steward, tenant farmer'; also used in many local, terrain, farm, and other surname formations.

rarermore common
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 259◐
  • DEGermany1 in 910
  • ATAustria1 in 3.3K

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈67K ●

across 14 countries

Sources
368 ●

363K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 259 ◐

Switzerland

Meaning & origin●

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 6 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Meier is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#26122,121111K rec.—listedMeier222
CH Switzerland#332,441△7.4K rec.1 in 25932KMeier152
US United States—25,486207K rec.1 in 13K25KMeier368
GB United Kingdom—8,1607.9K rec.——Meier86
CA Canada—5,8195.5K rec.——Meier104
AU Australia—4,5994.3K rec.——Meier124
BR Brazil—2,949△8 rec.1 in 72K2.9K—5
AT Austria#1791,9421.2K rec.—2Meier97
AR Argentina—1,6600 rec.1 in 27K1.7K—2
IT Italy—1,2831.5K rec.——Meier28
DK Denmark—1,003△1 rec.1 in 5.9K1K—3
LI Liechtenstein#890136 rec.—376Meier36

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • German231K44%
  • English214K41%
  • Spanish23K4%
  • French9.1K2%
  • 7.1K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
German231,38844%
English213,95841%
Spanish23,2634%
French9,1202%
7,0891%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

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

  • Spanish surname34K records spelled Meier6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Argentina, United States, Brazil, Switzerland

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Meïer, Meǐer, Méier

  • French surname10K records spelled Meier5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Switzerland, Spain

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Meïer, Meiër, Méïer

  • a separate surname9.3K records spelled Meier5 spellings in the group

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

    Also written Meïer, Meĭer, Méier

  • Danish surname5.8K records spelled Meier7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Denmark, Norway, United States, Switzerland

    Languages: Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian

    Also written Meïer

  • Polish surname4.0K records spelled Meier4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, United States, Switzerland

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

    Also written Meïer

  • Chinese surname2.9K records spelled Meier2 spellings in the group

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

    Also written Mei-Er

57 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●

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.

Over time●

010020030019001920194019601980205 · 1951

Show as table
Meier in INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000), France, 1891–1991
Yearrecords
1891113
1901126
191191
1921126
1931129
1941152
1951205
1961166
1971148
1981157
1991138

FR INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) — 11 years between 1891–1991. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

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●

Attested in 51 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
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—2.9K#3,471
AR ArgentinaRENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national)—1.7K—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—1K#400
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)2007880#1,993
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—584#2,238
LI LiechtensteinStatistik Liechtenstein — Familiennamenstatistik (surnames)2020376—
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—364#8,975
PL Polanddane.gov.pl — PESEL living persons (surnames)2026342—

Reference works 7

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 124 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Meier?
We estimate roughly 67 thousand people bear Meier (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.
In which country does Meier have the most bearers?
Meier is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled meier.
How common is Meier compared with other names?
In Germany, Meier is the 26th most common surname of 734,811 surnames recorded there.
What does the name Meier mean?
Recorded meaning: from MHG meier 'farm steward, tenant farmer'; also used in many local, terrain, farm, and other surname formations
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/meier

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

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 26th most common surname in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Meier parses inside a full name →