Mauer
A German surname often tied to a wall or to someone who lived by one.
The #9,834 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 93,787 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is most likely from German Mauere, meaning 'wall,' or from a place-name or house-name referring to someone living by a wall. In older German naming, forms like an der Mauer and auf der Mauer were common for people identified by where they lived. The name may also occasionally overlap with the occupational or descriptive sense of a mason or builder associated with walls, though the place-based reading is usually stronger.
History
The excerpted sources show medieval-style bynames such as 'an der Mauer' and 'auf der Mauer,' which support a topographic origin. Similar forms were used widely in German-speaking areas and later became fixed hereditary surnames. The spelling Mauer is found today in Germany and in German-descended communities abroad, including the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same word behind the surname also appears in many German place and house names, so Mauer can preserve a very literal piece of ancestral landscape.
From the historical record
“Uns klingen jetzt die Namen mancher Landleute in Schillers Teil auf- fällig und fremdartig: (Hans) auf der Mauer, (Jörg) im Hofe, (Burkhart) am Bühel u. a. Solcher Benennungen aber, wie sie hier Schiller im Anschluß an die Schweizer- Chronik von Tschudi gewählt hat, gab es ursprünglich sehr viele, von den…”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen