Leininger
A German habitational surname, likely meaning “someone from Leiningen” or a place with the Lein- name element.
The #7,021 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 64,794 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Leininger is a German surname formed from a place name, most likely referring to someone from one of the places called Leiningen. The ending -er is a common German suffix meaning “person from” or “inhabitant of.” The first element Lein- is place-name material; in older scholarship it is usually treated as part of a local geographic name rather than a separate everyday word.
History
The name appears in German-speaking regions as a habitational surname and was later carried abroad by emigrants, especially to North America. Historical surname dictionaries list it alongside other German place-derived names, supporting a local-origin explanation rather than an occupational one. In English-speaking countries it is often found with spellings that preserve the German shape of the name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same German -er ending seen in Leininger appears in many surnames that simply mean “from X,” such as Berger or Bender.
From the historical record
“Krahenbiihl (village in Aargau), Lamparter (a Lombard), Lein- bach, Letter, Leitner, Liditleitner (Leitner = mountain slope), Lichtheiser, Lichtemvalner (from Wald = wood), Leininger, Locker (Loch = brushwood ; it is also name of several villages in Switzerland), Longenecker (Longenegg, in Bern, Appenzell, St.…”
— Studies in Pennsylvania German Family Names