Hiner
A surname likely from a short form of the old personal name Hine, rather than a single fixed meaning.
The #9,590 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 91,075 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The best-supported explanation in the older surname dictionaries is that Hiner is a variant or spelling of surnames built from the given name Hine, itself a short medieval personal name. In that tradition, the surname would have begun as a patronymic or family-name form meaning, in effect, “son or descendant of Hine.” Some continental-looking forms cited in older works also show the same name cluster alongside German names such as Hein/Heine, so the spelling may have been influenced by cross-border variation.
History
The name appears in historical surname lists mainly as a variant linked with Hine, Hiner, Hein, and Heine, rather than as a major independently explained surname. In English-speaking records it is comparatively uncommon, which fits a family name that survived in scattered local lines and later standardized spellings. Modern U.S. bearers likely descend from one or more of these older spelling streams.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname compilers often grouped Hiner with a whole cluster of short-name surnames that shift easily by a single vowel or consonant across regions and records.
From the historical record
“Hindrie. See Hendry Hindson. S. Hinderson ; a p.n. Hine, Hiner. D. Hein ; G. Heine; p.n. (Harry). Prot. ref., Lond. 1618 Hinge. From Irish M‘Hinch. Or dim. of Hinc; G., Dch. Hinse;”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)