Funkhouser
A German-American surname likely built from a place-name element and a house-related ending.
The #8,339 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 77,750 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Funkhouser is a German surname that most likely began as a locational or habitational name, referring to someone from a place called something like Funkhausen or from a house associated with that name. The first element is probably related to German Funk, meaning "spark" or, in some cases, a nickname element, while the second element resembles Haus or the place-name ending -hausen, meaning "houses" or "settlement." In practice, surnames of this shape often arose from village names rather than a literal description of a building.
History
The name is especially associated with German-speaking immigrants and their descendants in the United States, where spelling was adapted to English orthography. The ending -houser is a fairly common Anglicized rendering in American records of German names built on -hausen. The surname remains relatively uncommon and is concentrated in the U.S. today.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Names ending in -houser often reflect an Americanized spelling of German place-based surnames with -hausen.