Geier
A German surname often derived from the word for a vulture or hawk, likely first used as a nickname.
The #8,518 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 79,903 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Geier is a German word for a vulture, and in older surname use it could also function more broadly as a bird-name nickname. Like many German surnames formed from animal names, it may have begun as a description of a person’s appearance, habits, or temperament. The historical sources here place Geier alongside other bird surnames such as Habicht and Sperber, which supports a nickname-based origin.
History
The surname is well attested in German-speaking areas and appears in older records in spellings such as Geyer and Geyr. Some families later treated the name as part of an heraldic or noble-style surname tradition, but the basic surname itself is older and more common than those later forms suggest. In German America, Geier was retained largely without major spelling change, though variant forms also occur.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older German name books often group Geier with other bird surnames, showing how common animal nicknames were as the source of surnames.
From the historical record
“Jctukens, Gayer s. Geier. Gayl- s. Gail. Geb- 8. Gab (V., einst. K.).”
— Die deutschen Familiennamen