Detweiler
A habitational surname for someone from a place called Detweil/Datweil, especially in Zurich or the Palatinate.
The #6,616 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 60,314 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Detweiler is a German habitational surname. The excerpted source links it to Datweil, a place name in Canton Zurich, and notes a parallel occurrence in the Palatinate. The ending -weiler is a common German place-name element meaning a small village or hamlet, from Latin villa, so the surname originally meant someone from that settlement.
History
This surname belongs to the large class of German and Swiss surnames formed from place names. It likely arose independently in more than one locality called Detweil/Datweil, which helps explain its presence in both Swiss and German records. In North America it is most familiar among descendants of German-speaking immigrants, especially from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The -weiler ending in German place names is ancient: it goes back to Latin villa, meaning a country house or farmstead.
From the historical record
“Dahl (Thai = valley), D'obler (Tobel = wooded valley, ravine), Deichler (one who lived near dike), Durrendorf, Dessenberger, Detweiler (Datweil, in Canton Zurich, also in the Palatinate), Dickover (from Diekehof, Thurgau ?), Draivbach, DubendorJ (village of the same name in the Canton Zurich), Ebner (one who lived…”
— Studies in Pennsylvania German Family Names