Werner

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Wernér in SE Sweden and Warner in TH Thailand.

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

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

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

• Portuguese given name60K records spelled Werner4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Switzerland, United States, South Africa

  Also written Wernér, Wérnér

• Polish given name43K records spelled Werner23 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, Croatia, United States

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Croatian

  Also written Warner, Verner, Werner', Вернер, Ŵḝřňeř

• French given name26K records spelled Werner4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Wëŕńëŕ, Wėrnēr

• Danish given name16K records spelled Werner7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Denmark, United States, Switzerland

  Languages: Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian

  Also written Wernér

• a separate given name14K records spelled Werner3 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Wernér

77 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●

Werner 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.

• Name of German origin, existing in Baden 1809.

  as a name·The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History

• In French, Germanic name from warin ‘protect’ + heri ‘army’.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In German, From a Germanic personal name (e.g. Warinheri); 39,488 bearers. Plate shows e ~ ö vowel variation with Wörner.

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

• In German, a male given name, popular in Germany since the Middle Ages

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

• In German, Patronymischer Familienname zu dem Rufnamen Werner (< ahd. warin + hari 'Heer'); Vollform mit e-Variante. 6 Types/39,488 Tokens; ca. 8% gerundete Varianten insgesamt.

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

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 127 years between 1889–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Werner von Siemensb. 1816DEGerman electrical engineer, inventor and industrialist (1816–1892)
• Werner Sombartb. 1863DEGerman economist, sociologist, historian (1863-1941)
• Werner Jaegerb. 1888DEGerman-American classical philologist (1888-1961)
• Werner Heisenbergb. 1901DEGerman theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner (1901–1976)
• Werner Arberb. 1929CHSwiss microbiologist and geneticist
• Sigmund Jähnb. 1937DEnot in their usual nameEast German cosmonaut (1937–2019)
• Werner Herzogb. 1942DEGerman film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director (born 1942)
• Rainer Werner Fassbinderb. 1945DEGerman filmmaker, playwright and actor (1945-1982)
• Klaus Johannisb. 1959ROnot in their usual namePresident of Romania from 2014 to 2025
• Werner Faymannb. 1960ATAustrian politician who was Chancellor of Austria and chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Austria

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 797 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Werner?

We estimate roughly 19 thousand people bear Werner (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Werner have the most bearers?

Werner is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled werner.

How common is Werner compared with other names?

In Germany, Werner is the 24th most common given name of 154,506 given names recorded there.

Is Werner a male or female name?

Werner is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Werner mean?

Recorded meaning: from the German male personal name Werner, literally ‘guard-army’