Bigler
A Swiss locational surname meaning someone from the village of Biglen in the canton of Bern.
The #8,254 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 76,936 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bigler is best explained as a habitational surname from Biglen, a village in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. The name would originally have identified someone who came from that place. The ending -er is the common German surname form meaning "from" or "of" a place.
History
The surname is especially associated with Swiss German naming patterns, and 20th-century surname writers explicitly link it to Biglen in Bern. It later spread beyond Switzerland through migration, particularly to North America. In the United States it appears as a relatively uncommon surname rather than a mass family name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Early surname dictionaries sometimes misread or overgeneralized names like Bigler, but later scholarship ties it neatly to a specific Swiss village.
From the historical record
“gar, in Danish, signifies a builder. BIGLER. (French.) One who squints. Bygylor, Welsh, a hector. BIGGORE. Local. An ancient province of France. BIGOT or BIGOD. A name given by the French to the Nor- mans, because, as Camden says, " At every other word they would swear ' By Grod,' " from which they were termed…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names