Heinrich
A German surname from the old personal name Heinrich, meaning “home ruler” or “ruler of the household.”
The #4,141 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 36,102 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Heinrich comes from the old German personal name Heinrich, itself built from two Germanic elements: heim, meaning “home” or “house,” and ric, meaning “power,” “rule,” or “ruler.” The surname is therefore a patronymic or hereditary family name taken from an ancestor’s given name rather than from a place or occupation. In sense, it matches the broader European name Henry.
History
The name Heinrich was long one of the major German royal and noble forenames, which helped keep it common across German-speaking regions. As surnames became hereditary, descendants or families connected with a man named Heinrich could adopt it as a family name. English-language sources often treat Heinrich simply as the German form of Henry.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century German onomastic writers noted Heinrich as one of the most prominent traditional German male names, alongside Karl, Ludwig, Konrad, Otto, and Friedrich.
From the historical record
“HEIN(E (Ger.) dim. of Heinrich, q.v. HEINRICH (Ger.) see under Henry in Diet. hIinZ^ I (Ger.) genit. of Hein(e, q.v. HELD (Ger.) Hero, Champion [M.H.Ger. helt, held = O.Sax. heWS] HENDRIK (Dut. and Scand.) = Henry, q.v. in Diet. HENRI (Fr.) see Henry iu Diet.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)