Kreider
A German surname, probably a spelling variant shaped by dialect and immigration, rather than a name with a single fixed English meaning.
The #6,353 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 57,548 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Kreider appears to be a German-American spelling variant rather than a clearly transparent word-name. In the historical source provided, it is grouped with forms such as Krauter and other similar surnames, and elsewhere the same source notes that K and C, and sometimes related sounds, often alternate in immigrant spellings. That makes the name likely to have been reshaped from a German original with a different vowel or consonant spelling, but the exact source form is not certain from the excerpt alone.
History
The name is found among German-speaking immigrant surnames in the United States and has been subject to spelling variation over time. The 1902 source excerpt links it with other German surnames that often changed in English-language records, suggesting a surname that evolved through dialect and Americanization. Modern U.S. use is modest but established, consistent with a family name carried by multiple unrelated lines or branches.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same historical source that mentions Kreider also points out that K/C spellings often shifted in German-American surnames, which is one reason these names can be surprisingly hard to trace in records.
From the historical record
“many names, as Curts (Kurtz), Butts (Butz). K and c} and often g, are interchangeable, as in Co/man (Kauffman), Cline (Kline), Grider (Kreider). At the end of a word, ig usually becomes y, as in Leiby (Leibig) , Leidy (Leidig). T is changed to d in Sides (Seitz), Road and Rhoades (Roth), Widmayer (Witmeyer). //is…”
— Studies in Pennsylvania German Family Names